Sermon on the Mount – Workers of Lawlessness

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Shabbat Shalom everybody. So today we come to one of the most sobering warnings in the Sermon on the Mount. It's a moment not driven by judgment, but by heartbreak. It's a moment where Yeshua calls us to question not our activity, but our alignment and where our allegiance is. We're nearing the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. That's been this beautiful, radical vision of what it looks like when heaven's will is done on earth. And before Yeshua closes his sermon, he gives us a warning—not about the world that's out there, but a warning about ourselves, essentially. He's giving us a warning about what we're capable of, about the danger of believing that we are in line with the kingdom when we're simply orbiting it, close to it, associating with it, while mistaking spiritual activity for spiritual alignment.

Because from the beginning, from the Beatitudes all the way to now, this sermon has been about a choice. It's been about a crossroads—there are two paths. There is the way of the kingdom, and there is the way of empire. There's the path that embodies God's justice and mercy and peace, and then the path that mimics power, performance, and self-righteousness. He says one of these leads to life, and the other leads to ruin. One builds heaven on earth, while the other just builds better empires. In this moment in Matthew 7, it's not supposed to be this huge disruption in the sermon of where he's going.

It's the culmination of it. This is the point. Because what good is the Beatitudes? What good is loving our enemies? What good is prayer? What good is fasting? What good is having humility if we turn them into performances rather than postures?

A Vision of Kingdom Life

The Sermon on the Mount has been called the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. It lays out not just what followers of Yeshua believe, but how they live—this standard of the kingdom. It paints a picture of what the world looks like when God's reign actually breaks through and into ordinary life, when our hearts and our actions and our communities are shaped by love, justice, and mercy. Throughout these chapters, Jesus has given us a lens through which we see everything differently. It exposes things like our anger, it exposes things like our lust, it exposes things like our promises—who our enemies are, our wealth, our anxieties.

He's not giving us new laws to obey. We know that. He's inviting us into a new type of humanity that has been reformed. The goal has always been transformation—not something that's surface level, not just so you can do things a little bit differently, but a deep reshaping of what we desire, what motivates us, where our hearts are oriented, and how we live. And now, he brings us to a point. You can hear all of the Sermon on the Mount that we've been going through for over a year now. We can memorize it, you can tweet it, you can preach it, and we can still miss everything that it's trying to tell us. It has always been about choice.

Two Gates, Two Paths

When will those who carry the kingdom like seed bearers, planting a little bit of heaven wherever we go—will we live as citizens of this new creation that Yeshua says is here and now? Will we choose to live in that space that also finds itself occupying the space of a crumbling world around it? Or will we settle for echoing kingdom language while living lives that never actually align with its ethic? Will we stand for heaven with our lips but advance empire with our lives—is the question. And here's the danger of the two paths that Yeshua speaks about. The danger is that we can train ourselves to think we're standing with the kingdom when in truth we're simply standing with our own reflection.

The kingdom that we're creating in our image. We've worn the badge, we've spoken the phrases, we've performed the acts, but we've never entered into the actual, authentic, foundational relationship with who and what God is through Yeshua. And by that, we've never been known. The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy. He calls him a good soldier of Christ because there's a battle. There's a battle. And it's not against flesh and blood, but against the patterns of this world that masquerade as righteousness. This spiritual revolution, one that wages peace, plants mercy, and breaks chains. And every single day, just as Paul says, every single day we have to make a choice.

Are we re-upping our enlistment? Are we declaring allegiance? The question that Yeshua is pressing on us is: whose kingdom are we actually committed to building? Are you serving in the movement of heaven? Or have we too deceived ourselves into fighting on the wrong side?

Building a Kingdom of Performance

We have a really bad habit of creating a world where we look 100% righteous and pious and Jesus-like, but we're really on the side of the world, the side of empire. It was the most pious and religious rabbis in Jerusalem who were called out for curating a religion of death away from God. That's what Yeshua says in Matthew 23. They do foreign mission trips and they add soldiers to the army of the devil. Evangelism can work for the kingdom of the devil, according to Matthew 23, if you're not careful. That was the accusation. It was a wake-up call because the religious leaders thought that Jesus was a threat to the kingdom of God.

I'll say that again. The religious leaders thought Jesus was a threat to the kingdom of God—the kingdom that they had been managing, the kingdom that they had built. That's why they were so scared. That's why they wanted him dead. That's why he was such a threat. They were building their own kingdom and calling it God's. And this decision has been pressing since the first word when Yeshua started speaking on this mountain, showing us the contrast of living in two different ways: the narrow gate and the wide gate. We're familiar with the gates. We walk through them every day. Every choice that we make.

The wide gate always seems like the most effective and efficient gate to walk through in most circumstances. It gives you more control over things. It might give you more power, but it leads to ruin. Then you have the narrow gate, which is usually the decision that you have to make that's going to be hard. It's going to cause you to press, it's going to cause you to experience discomfort. It requires humility, surrender, mercy. It's a harder path, but it leads to life. The wide gate's easy, it's affirming, it's comfortable, and it won't challenge your pride. The narrow gate is the one that the world says doesn't make sense to walk through.

Two gates, two paths, two different kinds of fruit, two destinations. And Jesus keeps the contrast going. Next week we'll talk about the two houses that are built. One built on a rock and the other on sand. One is known and the other is not. What kind of fruit are you producing with your title, with your status, with your label of being a Christ follower?

Lord, Lord, But Not His Way

And Yeshua presses into that question here in Matthew 7, verse 21: "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." What does the will of the Father look like? Looks like the Sermon on the Mount. Easy answer, right? It's all there. It's not the answer I like, but it's all there. It looks like mercy instead of vengeance. Reconciliation over retaliation. Trust instead of anxiety. It looks like choosing to bless others when you could and would have rather cursed. Yeah. That one doesn't get applause most of the time, but that's what accurately reflects the heart of God.

You're going to give mercy and grace to the most righteous people in this world that you experience and encounter, and you're going to give the same amount of mercy and grace to the most evil people, disgusting, horrible people that you would ever experience in your life. Why do we do that, Yeshua? Well, that's just how my Dad does it. That's what He says. So if you want to be like my Dad, you're going to act like this. You're gonna have so much power that your mercy can be distributed to everyone. I empathize with Jonah quite a bit because Jonah is the one that stood up to God, in a sense. He says, "God, no, no, no!

I knew this would happen! I knew this would happen! You sent me here to preach a sermon. I preached the sermon—it was five words in Hebrew. Tomorrow, Nineveh's gonna be overthrown. Have a good day." Everybody repents. The dogs and cats and cows are wearing sackcloth and fasting, along with everyone else, including the king of Nineveh. And Jonah throws a fit because he knew God would choose to give mercy to someone he felt he could give mercy to. Jonah, on the other hand, did not like serving a God like that. People like Jonah get really irritated when the people they think are against God are getting grace and mercy from God.

Yeshua was not the model of a Jonah. What's it say in Hebrews? It says that Yeshua is the accurate reflection of who God is. And when we take these words— when Yeshua says, "Not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven"—he continues in verse 22 by saying, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons? Didn't we do miracles?' And I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"

The Tragedy of Mistaken Identity

The tragedy is not just their failure. These people—the tragedy, what's most heartbreaking about this section of Scripture, is that the people really believed that they were on the right side the whole time. They had the activity. They were doing the things. They called him Lord, but they didn't walk in his ways. How easy is it to mistake spiritual energy for spiritual maturity? That's a great question. How easy is it to mistake spiritual energy for spiritual maturity?

Gifts and Fruit

Because we often assume that if someone is gifted, if they're passionate even, influential, that by default, obviously, they're deeply rooted in God's kingdom. But spiritual gifts are not the same thing as spiritual fruit. Gifts can be impressive. Fruit is often invisible until it's tested. Gifts can fill a room with wonder. Fruit will remain when the crowd is gone and everything's kind of passed. And I think that's the heart of what Yeshua was trying to warn us of here. He's not impressed by what dazzles. Yeshua seems to be very drawn to what endures. And we have a habit of measuring impact by size, quantity, the number of followers a ministry might have.

Someone asked me the other day, is your church thriving? How many people do you have? Man, we have the most amazing Yeshua-orbiting community I could have ever imagined. And however many people that is, it's amazing. I mean, that was just the first question in conversation. It's not the size of a ministry. It's not even the emotional power of the sermon. That's a dangerous one. We often attribute authority to people that simply have charisma. Yeshua never says any of those things are what determines the intimacy with a person and God. He says by their fruit.

Fruit Takes Time

Fruit takes time. It grows underground sometimes, or underground before it ever appears in the roots. Fruit can't be faked, it can't be manufactured, can't speed up fruit. You can buy it processed, I guess, but it's not about what's projected. It's about what's produced through the intimate union with the vine. When you've traveled the road called the relationship with God throughout your life, there comes a point where you begin to become more aware of God in your life and in the lives of others. You tend to get a type of clarity in finally seeing or understanding how God is somehow working through all of these really messed up people like me to impact the world and have this kingdom arise out of the cracks in the ground and topple the world powers.

It's the vision from Daniel. It's a little rock that's going to come out of the sky and topple all world empires, and then it's going to grow into a mountain, and the mountain's going to eat the world. It'll take over the world. It'll be the mountain of God. Sometimes you come to a place where you realize that God is growing you, and it's a good place to be. But it's also when you realize... that just because someone can pray very well doesn't mean a whole lot. It's the little things that start to show the fruit. This is why the alignment of where we're at with God matters. Fruit doesn't grow because we're impressive.

It grows because we are surrendering to God. It's a natural result of a life that abides in God's love or seeks it first and foremost, that walks in his humility and lives in his mercy, is a mascot of it.

Relationship Over Reputation

In the end, fruit is not about how many things you do in his name. It is about how well our lives reflect his heart. And that comes with how we're treating other people. Relationship over reputation, I guess you could say. But that is a hard way to live. But Yeshua says it leads to life.

Empire: The Machinery of Domination

When I use the word empire, I use that word a lot. I think it's a great word for the enemy of God's kingdom. Paul called it the world. In my book, it's the same thing. I don't see a difference. The way the world works, the way the world controls, the way the world manipulates, the way the world tries to feed you, the way the world tries to draw you away from God, it's in line with the same tenets of a growing empire. And Scripture backs that up. But when I use the word empire, it's not just talking about ancient Rome or even modern governments. It's talking about something deeper. It's the system, the spirit.

It's a way of arranging power that stands in direct opposition with the kingdom of God. Empire is the name we give to the machinery of domination, where control is elevated over compassion, where fear is used to maintain order, and where the strong and those secure in their own comfort live at the expense of the weak. Empire is not just a government. It's a way of being in the world that is fueled by pride, selfpreservation, and exploitation. And in the Bible, empire was not neutral. It's a symbol of rebellion against God. Egypt enslaves. Babylon exiles. Rome, they crucify. From Genesis to Revelation, the scriptures expose empire as a counterfeit kingdom, a world that's ordered and built not on covenant but on coercion and power. Behind every empire, Scripture suggests, is a deeper power, a spiritual force, the enemy.

Satan's Temptation

Satan doesn't show up wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. We know that. He shows up offering thrones to people. He shows up whispering the same temptation he whispered to Jesus in the wilderness. All these kingdoms, all of my kingdom, I will give to you. Just bow. We will hook you up with a genuine empire of God. It'll be great. Yeshua, don't you know who I am? I'm the one who runs all of these empires. And if you bow down to me, you can run one of these empires too. That's why the understanding of empire and power and corruption is so essential to understanding the story of the Bible. That's what got Israel in trouble. They became one.

That's where the prophets came out. That whole section in the middle of the Bible is when Israel becomes an empire and the response from God through the prophets.

Scripture as Resistance

The Bible is not a neutral book. It's a resistance document. It's the story of God building an upside-down kingdom in the shadow of oppressive ones. It's the story of slaves being freed, exiles being restored, and the crucified being raised in defiance of Caesar's claim that he is God and has absolute power. Yeshua didn't come to tweak a few things, to turn the screwdriver on a few loose screws of empire. He came to confront it with the cross. He came to destroy it. He came to make it fall. He didn't come to offer a better version of worldly success. He came to birth a new creation altogether. That's why Christianity is so radical. That's why Christianity is so upsetting to so many people. It really is kind of insane—the mission that God is on—and he's asked you to be a part of it, a soldier in the army. Almost sounds a little crazy when you say it out loud like that, doesn't it? We're not crazy. We're progressing.

Kingdom Versus Empire

So when we talk about the kingdom of God versus the path of empire, we're naming a real divide. The kingdom is shaped by humility. We know that. Generosity. We know that. Truth. Empire is shaped by pride, violence, and domination. One flows from heaven's throne, the other from the systems of the world that reject God's reign. The danger is not just in the world, but in being disciplined by empire. Coming to a place of compromise where you adopt its values while wearing the Christian language. The kingdom... The kingdom, on the other hand, grows like yeast in dough, like a seed buried in the dirt, like a shepherd leaving 99 to chase one down. The kingdom looks like weakness in the eyes of empire, but it is the power of God itself. And the hard part is understanding how susceptible you are to convincing yourself what you're not.

Vietnam and Colonial Extraction

Vietnam is a really neat country, and it's up and coming as one of the preferred places for boomers to retire. Hasn't made it in the top five yet, but it's working its way up, which I find hysterical. But that's awesome, right? This country that's been through a lot. Vietnam was under French colonial rule. It means France kind of owned them, owned everything about them for nearly a century. And the French didn't come there to serve when they occupied Vietnam. They came to extract. They built rubber plantations, they controlled rice exports, they drained Vietnam's wealth for the benefit of companies like Michelin, which profited massively off Vietnamese labor.

Banks like the Bank of Indochina financed and managed the extraction economy, all while the local population remained poor, oppressed, and politically voiceless. Can you imagine a poorer country? A larger country with resources and weapons comes in and overtakes it. And they set up a new economy for the people there. Your banks are cute. We're doing away with your currency. You're going to have a new type of currency that will be controlled by our central bank. And we get to determine what you get paid, the whole thing. But while we're here, we're going to take your trees. We're going to take your water.

We're going to take your fuel. We're going to take your diamonds. We're going to take your coal. We're going to take all of it. And we will pay you a good wage... from the bank that's the money that we're printing for you to use here. And if you don't do these things, then we'll kill your kids. That's about how it goes. And every great empire is familiar with this strategy. But this is what France was doing to Vietnam. After World War II, Vietnamese people had endured the oppression from France during World War II. They had to fight the Japanese that came into their land to expel them. And after World War II, they decided it's time to throw off the colonial yoke and declare independence.

That's something we can get behind, right? Independence, that's right. They even reached out to the U.S. for support, citing the Declaration of Independence. We were a role model for them. But they weren't met with support from the U.S. during this time. They were met with silence. Because we like France. They're our buddies. So they got in an eight-year war with France, and they finally pushed them out of Vietnam in 1954. And the people began to come together and figure out how they're going to build their own government and how they're going to be independent. We didn't step back. We stepped in. Why?

Because empire doesn't let go of things. We know what happened. I wasn't a child when this was happening.

A Righteous Nation

This was before my time. But when I was a child, I grew up believing that the Vietnam War was a fight against very evil people. We had to go over there because that's who we are as the Righteous Nation of America. We're the good guys. Right? Totally the good guys. When we went to war in Vietnam, we didn't enter to support freedom. We entered to fill the power vacuum left by France, to keep the region safe from communism. At least that's how it was framed. Because after the Soviets beat Germany in World War II, the world was changing pretty rapidly. Several countries, such as China and North Korea, had revolutions and they formed nationalistic governments with the idea of focusing energy on the people inside of the country instead of so much energy going out of the country, because they had been oppressed in times past by foreign powers.

And the fear was that if too many countries keep their goals, flooding money internally, then out into the global trade market, that would definitely affect our economy. And we can't let that happen. This is in the middle of the Cold War. We make money from other countries when we either force them or agree to work with us for cheaper labor, cheaper natural resources, and cheaper products that we can then sell back to us for a higher price. We didn't want Russia to have greater influence.

Empire and Resistance

What was really happening during this time is you have a people, a Vietnamese people, having just defeated one empire and now immediately confronting another one. They tried to form their own government, a reunified Vietnam, under a nationalistic leader, Ho Chi Minh. But because, of course, he was aligned with communism, the US rejected that. Instead, we meddled, propped up, and supported the government of South Vietnam. Not because it represented the people, but because it was in line with our geopolitical interests. It is the right thing to do for an empire. It was not a great nation, South Vietnam.

They persecuted many people, including the Buddhists, the monks in South Vietnam. Big, big outcry about it. It was a mess. The whole country was a mess. It was split into two. You had North Vietnam, you had South Vietnam. You had alliances coming together with both. You had money flooding in from all over the world. Who's going to take this piece of land? On one hand, you have a country that is resisting to push an occupying force that controls their money, their taxes, and their freedom so they can rebuild a country where people can actually live free. That was the goal. Something Americans can totally get behind, right?

America. On the other hand, you have power, influence, and money. America. And so the people resisted. And we called them the enemy.

60,000 Soldiers and a Tragedy Now, everyone knows about Vietnam. It's been a stain on U.S. history ever since it took place. It's a horrible, horrible decision to go into Vietnam. Horrible decision to send our troops over there. Horrible decision to not support them when they return home, just like we never really do, except for the hand clap at the baseball games.

But when you finally understand, just from a macro view, a helicopter view, what was going on —it's a tragedy. The whole conflict's a tragedy. We thought we were the heroes, the saviors, the defenders of freedom. They were 100% the bad guys, and we're 100% the good guys. But on the ground in Vietnam, it looked a lot like empire sending kids over to another country to get slaughtered, not to defend America. 60,000 US soldiers were slaughtered fighting a people that had spent over a century oppressed by another empire. They spent four years fighting the Japanese, not allowing them to have any strongholds there during World War II, and then eight more years fighting France to expel them, only to begin the second Indo-Chinese war with us. 60,000 US soldiers and 1 to 2 million Vietnamese civilians perished in this conflict. Something we knew was the right thing to do. It was obvious. They are the enemy. It's worth sending our sons and daughters to die. It's worth killing sons and daughters when we get there. Tragic instance. Tragic instance.

The Movie About It

They made a movie about it, though. Did you guys realize that? They made a movie about the U.S. involvement fighting the rebel Viet Cong when the Ho Chi Minh resistance kind of evolved into more of a military resistance. You may have heard of it. It's called Star Wars. Here's a quote from George Lucas speaking about it. This was in the early 2000s when he made this quote. But he said the original Star Wars was about the Vietnam War. It was a period where Nixon was running for re-election, and so on and so forth. And he was critical of how corporations were beginning to take over the government and be able to push Congress to go to war. And so Star Wars was his effort to try to create a movie that was a kid movie with deep meaning and deep warnings about it. He went on to say that the rebels are like the Viet Cong and the empire is the U.S. government. The emperor is kind of like the president, and Darth Vader—that's the ideal follower of empire. See, that's the one who knows what's right, but is loyal to power that the empire gives him.

Sometimes We Think We're the Good Guys

Sometimes we think we're the good guys, fighting the good fight, and having full confidence when we're doing the work of justice and order and morality, until we realize we might not be, just like Vader in the end, right? Vader thought he was prepared to let the empire kill his son, but he couldn't do it. He was not going to let his son be another victim of the empire. So he turned and he threw the emperor over the ledge.

Just because someone uses the force does not mean they're a Jedi knight. I guess that's really what it comes down to. That's what Yeshua was warning us about. You can fight with full conviction and you can still be wrong when it comes to the kingdom. You can build with great effort and still hear the words, I never knew you. I never knew you. That's what Yeshua was saying.

I Never Knew You

You might have thought you were aligned with heaven, but what are you building? Are you creating a world of healing or are you creating a world of control? Fruit reveals the root. And he goes on and he says, I never knew you. The word in Greek is genosko. It means to intimately know, to be in a relationship. It's the word that Adam used for Eve, to know one another. It's not a casual word. And it should be interesting to point out, he just met a few of his disciples that he's having this conversation with, so he didn't even know them, which really gives weight to this. You mean I can't just right now? No, this is a long path. You need to make sure you're doing something every day for the long game. I never knew you. This had nothing to do with what they were doing. He didn't say you didn't do enough. He said you were building something I wasn't a part of.

Anomia: Against the Heart of Justice

And then he uses the word anomia—lawlessness, Torahlessness—literally against the Torah, against the ethic of God's instruction, against the heart of justice, compassion, and covenant. He said the religious leaders, the most pious ones, fall into this category. This is what he's warning about. And what does it mean to be known? It means embodying the will of the Father. Did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons, perform miracles? These are people who are baffled that Yeshua does not know who they are. Can you imagine? Baffled. What do you mean? There must be some type of mistake. Lord, Lord, I mean? They for sure knew who Yeshua was. But despite my evangelical upbringing in church, I realize that knowing Yeshua is not the most important thing in the Bible. The most important thing in the Bible apparently is that Yeshua knows you.

Two Gates, Two Roads

So where are you? In your journey, in the road that you're on, which road is it? Which one did you take? Which one have you been traveling on so long that it's starting to look not quite like it used to? Or maybe we've been traveling the wrong road because it gives us control and we don't have to trust as much, but we can decorate it like the broad road. But whose kingdom are you building? When you look at your life and when you look at where you're going and when you look at what is going on in your heart, the way you treat other people? If every step you took fertilized the ground for one of those two things, the kingdom or the empire, how much real estate do you have?

And have you been building one, laying a foundation for the one more than the other? That's Yeshua's warning. He says you have a choice. Remember that. It's easy to get lost. Two gates, two roads, and there are two kinds of disciples. The wide path is impressive. The narrow one is faithful. One builds monuments. The other builds tables. The wide path praises power, and the narrow path bends low in service. And Yeshua, with all the love in his voice, he says to choose the way that leads to life.

Get Back on the Path

And so let's continue to persevere in this life, understanding that anybody can get off the path a little bit. Anybody can trick themselves into thinking that they're doing good, even if they're at a place that's not so great. And Yeshua says, there's still time. There's still time. Get back on the path. Get oriented. Build the kingdom. Be the ambassador of heaven on earth. When people meet you, have them walk away with an experience with Jesus. It's his spirit that's within you, right? It's that power that's going through you.

Be Known and Be Faithful

If you're an ambassador, it means you're the messenger of. That should be the fruit that you're leaving behind. If it's not, then reevaluate it. Why isn't it? Let's be known. Let's be faithful, and let's always be bound to the side of the kingdom. Amen. Please join me as we conclude services with worship. And if you need prayer today, I'd like someone to pray with you. We have prayer available on either side of the stage during this time. And if you need to leave something here today, we have this symbolic altar right up front. You can lay it right up front. Take as much time as you need. We've taken a long journey to get here. This is the warning that Yeshua leaves us with. So please stand.

Our Father, Our King

Our Father, our King, Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come together, to read your word, to hear the warnings, but also for the grace to give us an opportunity to think about that, to reflect on that, to reevaluate. Make sure we're still where we need to be and haven't been somewhere or gone somewhere we shouldn't. Father, we thank you for your continued love and mercy. We thank you for your forgiveness and your grace. And we ask, Father, in the name of Yeshua, as your soldiers of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of King Yeshua, that the spirit that you say is within us now, Father—that it would be something we feel and recognize and stop ignoring, that we would use this power, that you would use this hope that we have. We thank you in the name of Yeshua. We pray. Amen.

Shabbat Shalom

Sing with me. Shema Yisrael Adonai Adonai Ukshah Kehah. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his peace. In the name of our Tsar Shalom, our Prince of Peace, Yeshua HaMashiach. And in your name we pray it, Father, Yeshua. Amen. Shabbat Shalom, family. Shabbat Shalom.