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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Rodney den Boer > Life in Jesus' kingdom is characterised by deep, inner change | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy)
Read: Proverbs 4:20-27; James 3:1-12; Sing: Ps 57:1, 4, 5; Ps 17:2, 3; Ps 86:1, 4; Ps 139:1, 13; Hy 76:1, 2, 3, 4 Questions for reflection/discussion
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Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Imagine with me a woman whose speech has a beautiful flavour, let’s call her Adele. Every time you speak with Adele, she exudes a spirit of thankfulness, of joy, of kindness. She has a warm tone. She shows interest in you as a person and listens well. She speaks into your life and says just the right words to encourage you. She speak about her love for God and how she trusts in him through hard times. You finish chatting with Adele and you’re encouraged, uplifted.
Or on the other hand, imagine a woman whose speech is always negative, let’s call her Philippa. Philippa is always complaining. The weather is too hot or cold, her kids are lazy and never do the chores properly, her husband left the the clothes on the bedroom floor, her friends never really understand her. She speaks about other people with a critical spirit. But she is never the problem. She also loves to talk about herself, not only about her problems, but also about her latest exercise regime and health diet. She almost never talks about God. You feel drained after talking with her.
Dear brothers and sisters, I think we all know people like Adele and Philippa. And when we consider our own lives, we might see evidence of both characters in ourselves. The question that our Lord Jesus addresses in our text this morning, is how do people change? How can Philippa become like Adele? The word of Christ for us today, which is given to us by his Spirit, is that:
Life in Jesus’ kingdom is characterised by deep, inner change
- Where this change happens
- How this change happens
- Has this change happened?
1. Where this change happens
Christ has been teaching about the moral lives of his followers, what sort of life he wants us to live, a life of dependence, radical love, generosity, and charity. And now he teaches that these outward behaviours come from our inner life, from what he calls the heart. And our Lord was a very good preacher, he used a lot of word pictures, pictures from ordinary life, and he uses here the image of a tree, familiar to the agrarian culture of the day.
He says in v43, no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. You don’t pick apples from a bottlebrush tree, and you don’t pick passionfruit from a rosebush. When I grew up, we planted some fruit trees, apricots and nectarines and perhaps some other stone fruit. And after a few years, they were overcome by a fungus which took over the fruit and caused it to rot before it would ripen. The fungus was in the ground, in the roots of all these trees, and so it infected the entire plant, and almost the entire crop of fruit was wasted every time. They became bad trees, so the fruit was bad, too.
And so it is with people. The outward behaviour people show is the fruit which gives evidence of the type of tree they are. What determines a person’s behaviour is their heart, their inner life, v45: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.”
The heart in the Bible refers to our inner life, which focuses especially on our mind, our thoughts, but includes also our emotions and desires. In Luke 3:16, the people at the time of John the Baptist were “questioning in their hearts” about him, whether he was the Christ. The heart here is thinking. Or in Luke 5:22, Jesus perceived their thoughts, and he said, “why are you reasoning in your hearts?” Here, the heart is again thinking. The heart is also the place of our desires. In Luke 12:34, Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The things you treasure, or love, or desire, are in your heart. And finally, the heart can be joyful, the heart can be sad, it can be a place of emotions. The heart refers to our entire inner life, with a primary focus on our minds, our thinking.
And the state of your heart will inform the rest of your life. Proverbs 4:23 says, “keep your heart with all diligence, for from it spring the issues of life.” Think of a spring of water, it bubbles out. And the same is with the heart, your thoughts, your inner life will bubble out in your behaviour.
Christ says, there are two types of heart. A good person has a good heart, which is like a treasure chest. Boys and girls, you’ve probably read fairy tales about pirates who find a treasure chest, with lots of good things inside it. Verse 45: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good.” A good heart is like a treasure chest with a lot of good things to bring out. Out of that good treasure chest comes generosity that doesn’t require anything in return. Out of that treasure chest comes a soft answer that turns away wrath. Out of that treasure chest comes a gracious, kind word to a stranger, welcoming them and showing charity. These things come from a good heart.
But an evil person has an evil heart, and they bring out evil things from it. In Matthew 15:18, Christ says that “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Those are the sort of things hiding in the wicked man’s treasure chest.
And if our hearts are like a tree, and our lives are the fruit, Christ says it is our speech that reveals what our hearts are like. Our tongues are a litmus test for our hearts. Where do our words come from? Maybe you have it that words seem to just come to your mouth and you blurt something out, even before thinking. It seems they come from nowhere. But they don’t come from nowhere. They come from our hearts. What’s living inside us bubbles out in our speech, in our words.
James reminds us of that, too, when he speaks about the destructive effect the tongue can have. It’s like a forest fire, a world of sin, it can defile the whole body, it cannot be tamed, and it is full of deadly poison. And where does that destruction come from? It originates with the spring of our hearts; our speech is fruit coming from the tree that is our inner life.
Dear brothers and sisters, if someone made a transcription of your speech for one day, including all the messages you send on your phone, your emails, your social media posts, including what you say at breakfast time when you’ve just gotten up, how you talk to your parents or children throughout the day, what you say to your husband or wife, what you say to your work colleagues, what you say to your siblings, what you say about other people, the conversations you have with your friends… imagine someone made a transcription of everything you said for one day, and then printed it out and left it at the back of church for everyone to see. What would your speech say about your heart? Is it a good treasure chest, bringing forth kindness and generosity and charity? Or is it an evil treasury, bringing forth bitterness, selfishness, envy, and hatred?
The Lord teaches us that change happens first inside our hearts. Those who live under his rule have good hearts; there is a change that happens inside us. If we want to grow in obedience to Jesus Christ, we need inner change. It’s not enough to say, “I’m going to try be nice, I’m going to try clean up my language and try not to gossip.” You see, we need a renovation of our hearts. How does that happen?
2. How does this change happen?
It happens as we listen to the words of Jesus Christ and obey them. He speaks to our hearts, and by his Holy Spirit he applies his words to us, and when we receive his words in faith, when we hear the word and believe, when we put it into action, our hearts change. Our hearts are either believing Jesus’ words or not believing them. It is when we do believe his words that our hearts change.
And so, when Christ gets to the end of his sermon, he gives another word picture to drive the point home. In v47, he says, “I will show you” what the man is like who hears my sayings and does them. He is like a man who builds a house and digs deep and lays the foundation on the rock. Notice that he digs deep. It’s hard work. But he builds a strong foundation, on the rock, which makes a sturdy house. As we build the renovation, there is a lot of foundation work required, the footings go deep and are concreted in. And that gives stability to the whole building. It won’t blow over in the easterly wind. It will withstand flooding.
But the one who hears Christ’s words and does nothing is like the man who builds his house on earth without a foundation. He doesn’t bother digging, it’s too hard. He just starts putting up the walls on the bare earth. But when the flood comes, the stream of water washes this house away, it has no foundation to keep it sturdy.
It reminds me of the story of the three little pigs. Boys and girls, you remember the first two pigs who built their houses with straw and with sticks, they were lazy and didn’t spend much time on their houses because they wanted to play, and what happened when the big bad wolf came? He blew their houses down. They had no foundation. But the third pig was a hard worker, and he built his house with bricks, he worked hard and it was a good house, when the wolf came, he couldn’t blow that house down, no matter how much he huffed and puffed.
Christ teaches the importance of putting his words into action. This is how he changes our hearts, by speaking to us. He tells us about his kingdom, I am the king, I’ve come to bring you into my redemptive rule, I’ve brought salvation to you, a sinner, and I’m changing you from the inside out. And on our part, we need to do something with that word, we need to do the hard work of believing it and obeying it.
When he exposes our sins by his word, we must believe that word, and no longer hide in sin, no longer try to cover it up, but believe that his word is true, we are guilty before God and deserve his judgement. That becomes real when we realise thoughts of self-righteousness and pride creeping up in us. We are tempted to look down on others as terrible sinners – I’m not that bad. At those moments the Lord calls us to believe his word about our condition, that there is none righteous, no, not none. I need to be washed just as much as these babies need to be washed.
And then, when Christ reveals himself to us as the friend of sinners who has not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, he calls us to believe that he has come to call us, to show us his grace. When Christ shows that love and acceptance by hanging out with people of questionable character, we must believe that word, that he is our Saviour who loves and accepts us. That becomes real when we feel guilty or ashamed because of our sin. I feel bad because of what I’ve done. But then I trust the word of Jesus Christ, he told me he has died for that sin, he confirmed that in my baptism.
And then Christ calls me to follow him in a life of obedience, and this is where we apply all the teaching of the Sermon on the Plain. This becomes real when we go through troubles. Will I trust myself? Will I become bitter? Or will I obey the words of Jesus when he says, “blessed are the poor,” blessed are those who trust in me. It becomes real when someone insults me. Will I respond in kind? Or will I obey the words of Jesus and turn away anger with a soft word, and respond in love. It becomes real when someone takes something precious from me or abuses me in some other way. Will I get angry and bitter? Or will I pray for them. It becomes real when I see someone who has a different approach to parenting or technology or wears a different style of clothing. Will I judge them? Or will I obey the words of Christ and accept them with open arms, knowing he has accepted me.
It's so much easier to just start building on the ground, without digging a foundation. It’s easier not to obey the words of Jesus. It’s hard work to apply his words to our lives. It might not always make sense to us. Sometimes it seems more intuitive to obey our sinful desires. It’s more intuitive to be nice to nice people, it’s more intuitive to be generous when you know someone will give in return to you, showing love to your enemies is dangerous because you might get even more hurt. The words of Christ do not always make sense to us.
And that’s exactly when the Lord calls us to obey them. Even when we don’t think they make sense. You remember when Simon Peter and his mates were fishing all night, and they came back to the beach and then Christ finished his morning sermon and told them to go fishing again. It didn’t make sense to Peter, he said, “Master, we’ve been working all night and caught nothing! But at your word I will let down the net.” He trusted the word of Christ, he obeyed the word of Christ. And that’s what he calls us to do in the ordinary, daily challenges that we face. That’s building a good foundation.
But on the other hand, Jesus speaks to church-going Christians who profess their faith in God, but are actually building a house on sand. In In v46, he says, “why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things I say?” Lord means, he was speaking to people who acknowledged his authority. You say Lord, but you don’t do what I say.
You say that you’re a sinner, but the boastful language you use suggests you’ve never actually humbled yourself before God. You say that you believe in Christ as your Saviour, but you rarely speak about him in your conversations, you barely think about him. How can this be the case if he has truly saved you? And you say he is your Lord and Master, but your live shows no evidence of change. You feel convicted by a sermon one day, and you say, “I really need to start reading my Bible regularly for myself.” But then tomorrow comes and you don’t do it. And then next week comes and you don’t do it. And then next year comes and you haven’t changed.
Or you’re convicted by a need to apologise to someone, you said some really unkind and hurtful words to them. I need to apologise. But you don’t see them for a few days. And then you see them and you say to yourself, “It’s not really that important.” You don’t change. You say, I’m not going to gossip again. But then something comes up in a conversation, you’ve heard something about that person, and you just say it. In the moment of sin, you do not obey the words of Jesus. You do not change. Or there is a temptation to sexual sin, someone is indecently dressed, and you say, I’m not going to look, but then you look. You say one thing but do another.
How do we change? It is by believing and obeying the words of Jesus Christ, by doing hard work, digging a deep foundation and applying his words into those parts of our life. It is through this process that the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ changes us from the inside out. He works this change in us by the word of Christ, he makes us believe his words. And so, because it is the work of the Spirit, he calls us to pray for the Spirit to renovate our hearts, so that Christ dwells in us through faith. And the Spirit works through the Word of Jesus Christ as we believe and obey it.
3. Has this change happened?
You see how the words of our Lord Jesus Christ search our hearts, dear brothers and sisters? Again we’ve been confronted by his teaching. And the two contrasts, between a good heart and an evil heart, between a deep and firm foundation, and a shallow and flimsy foundation, call for us to examine our hearts again this morning.
What type of heart do I have? What does my speech reveal about my inner being? Does my talk sound more like Adele, seasoned with grace? Or is it more like Philippa, tainted with bitterness?
And what type of foundation am I building? Am I doing the hard work of applying the words of Jesus Christ to my life, of believing them even when it is hard and doesn’t seem to make sense, of trusting that they are true in the nitty gritty situations of my family and work? Or do I simply say I believe them, do I simply say I’m going to change, but I never do?
Our Lord presses home the point by showing two different effects. First, if your heart has been changed by the words of Jesus Christ, then you’ll be able to weather great storms. That refers to storms or floods in this life. Jeremiah 17:7, 8 says that the man who trusts in the LORD “shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease bearing fruit.” The man who trusts in the LORD will continue to bear fruit when life is hard, when he hears difficult news about his health, when he is disappointed in their family life.
But further, this refers to the flood of God’s judgement, at the end of time. The one who trusts in God, who has believed the words of Jesus Christ in their hearts, this one will withstand the flood of God’s judgement. Christ will claim them as his own: you have trusted and obeyed my word, enter into the joy of your Lord.
But those who have evil hearts, who do not believe the words of Jesus Christ will not stand in the floods of life. They will not stand when persecution comes. They’ll be overwhelmed by the troubles of this life. And at the end of time, their evil hearts will be revealed and they will not stand before God’s judgement. They will be judged for every evil word they spoke, which revealed that they never truly believed and obeyed the words of Jesus Christ. And Christ will say to them, as he says in Luke 13:25, “I tell you I do not know you, where you are from.” And they might even say to him, “But Lord, we went to church every Sunday! We sent our children to John Calvin School! We never missed a Bible study!” And he will say to them, “I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.”
Perhaps you’re here today and this is the first time you’ve ever been in a church. You realise that your heart is not a good treasure chest, but it brings all sorts of gross things out, your talk is evil. What do you do? Jesus Christ came to save people like you, and to change your heart. Do you want a changed heart? Do you want a good treasure chest? Tell him you’re sorry for offending him, and ask him to change you. And then keep learning his word, and putting it into practice.
It's a word for all of us, isn’t it. How easy it is, brothers and sisters, to ignore the words of Christ, or to put them off and say, that sounds great, but not today. It’s possible to be a member here who sits here and yet resists the word of Christ every week, dreaming about whatever you’re going to do after the service, or tomorrow.
But life in Jesus’ kingdom is characterised by deep, inner change. It is characterised by a new heart, which God gives us by his Spirit and works in us by his Word. Has this sort of change happened to you? Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Rodney den Boer, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2026, Rev. Rodney den Boer
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