Sermon Tone Analysis

*First Baptist Church of Manchester*

*/The Sermon that Jesus Preached /*

*/Matthew 5:7-9 /*

*Blessings of the *

*Kingdom – Part 3*

*Pastor David Saylor April 2, 2017*

*READ Matthew 5:3-10*

Today we shall cover the next three beatitudes:

With each beatitude we look at, I hear another nail being driven into a coffin.

Inside the coffin lies the corpse of a /false understanding of salvation/.

The false understanding that says a person can be saved without being changed.

Or that a person can inherit eternal life even if his attitudes and actions are like the attitudes and actions of unbelievers.

*The Cry of the Beatitudes: Get a New Heart*

One after the other the beatitudes (and entire Sermon) tell us that the blessings of eternity will be given only to those who have become new creatures.

*Matthew 5:7–9* 7/ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

/8/ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. /9/ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God./

If we don't obtain mercy, we receive judgment.

If we don't see God, we are not in heaven.

If we aren't called the sons of God, we are outside the family.

In other words, these are all descriptions of final salvation.

And it is promised only to the /merciful/, the /pure in heart/, and the /peacemakers/.

Therefore, the beatitudes are like long spikes holding down the lid of the coffin on the false teaching which says that “/if you just believe in Jesus you will go to heaven whether or not you are merciful or pure in heart or a peacemaker/.”

In fact, from beginning to end the Sermon on the Mount cries out, "Get yourself a new heart!

Become a new person!”

And at the very end of the sermon in *7:26f*.

the Lord calls out over the crowds, /"Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."/

In other words, a life that does not reflect the beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount will not stand in the judgment no matter what we say or believe!

*Not Optional Suggestions but the Path to Heaven*

So I want to impress upon your consciences this morning with as much clarity as I can that if you are a believer, Jesus is not making optional suggestions.

On the contrary, *Jesus is* *describing what those on the pathway to heaven look like*.

That is what is at stake in the Sermon on the Mount.

If you are on the narrow path which leads to life, this sermon’s purpose is to help you stay on it.

And if you are still in the broad way that leads to destruction, it is to direct you to the path of life.

We are going to look at the next 3 together.

!! How does a person become merciful, pure-hearted, and a peacemaker?

Recall from last week how we saw the first three beatitudes in verses 3–5 describing the emptiness of the blessed person: and that is followed in verse 6 by a /hunger and thirst for the fullness of righteousness/.

If it is true that the first three beatitudes show how a person must stand in his relation as a sinner to God—/spiritually bankrupt, sorry for sin, and meekly humble/—and if it is true that the fourth beatitude contains the promise of God’s provision of righteousness for the person who so comes to God, *then it is logical to expect that the remaining beatitudes will reveal the transformed character of the one who now has been touched by Christ’s Spirit and is being progressively remade in Christ’s image.*

Note that:

(1) all three qualities are divine qualities;

(2) we can understand them only because we have first seen them exhibited by Christ and experienced them because of a connection to Christ; and

(3) because we have experienced them in Christ we are on this account to exhibit them to others.

The conclusion is that we shall be able to do this only as our lives are yielded to him.

That is how one becomes merciful, pure and a peacemaker.

Blessed are the MERCIFUL – V.7

*What Is Mercy?

*Or: what is a merciful person like?

Mercy is /grace in action/.

Mercy is love reaching out to help those who are helpless and who need salvation- just as God had mercy on us (*1 Peter 1:3* (NIV)/3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In his /*/great mercy/*/ he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,/).[1]

*Showing* *Mercy or being merciful* is the doing of some action on behalf of someone in need for which he cannot help himself, out of compassion.

!!! Mercy in the Parable of the Good Samaritan 

A great illustration of mercy is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan in *Luke 10:25–37*

/25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.

“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied.

“How do you read it?”

27 He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied.

“Do this and you will live.”

/

The man asked Jesus how a person should act who may expect to find mercy at the judgment day and inherit eternal life.

And Jesus answers that the persons who will receive the mercy of eternal life are those who have loved God with all their hearts and their neighbor as themselves.

In other words, as we shall see, Jesus is saying, /"Blessed are those who are merciful now to their neighbor, for they shall receive the mercy of eternal life in the future."/

The lawyer asks, /"Who is my neighbor?"/

And Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan in *verses 30–37*.

/ 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

/

/31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

/

/33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.

‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

/

/36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had /*/mercy/*/ on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”./

Four Dimensions of Mercy in This Parable 

Here we have a very sharp photograph of mercy.

Mercy has four dimensions in this story.

#. *First, it sees distress* (verse 33: "A Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and he saw him").

#. *Second, it responds internally with a heart of compassion *or pity toward a person in distress (verse 33: "When he saw him, he had compassion on him").

#. *Third, it responds externally with a practical effort to relieve the distress* (verse 33: "He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him").

#. *And the fourth dimension of mercy is that it happens even when the person in distress is an enemy by religion or race…* (verse 33: "But a Samaritan . . .

").

A half-breed Jew with a warped religious tradition stops to help the Jew who hates him.

/An eye for distress, a heart of pity, an effort to help, in spite of enmit/y—that's merciful.

*THESE are what* *those on the pathway to heaven look like.

Who have been touched by Christ’s Spirit.

Who will receive mercy from God.*

What is the obstacle to mercifulness?

Outward perfunctory religion that doesn’t reach the heart (as we shall see later)….. Religion where it stops after we make decisions to go to church, put in our offering, do my bit….

Pure in Heart – V.8

*/v.8/*/

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God./

!!! [Jesus is Concerned About Our Heart]

The first thing we learn from this beatitude is that Jesus is concerned with our heart.

It is not enough to clean up our act on the outside.

*Matthew 23:25–26 */Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.

You blind Pharisee!

First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean./

The aim of Jesus Christ is not to reform the manners of society, but to change the hearts of sinners like you and me.

Jesus would not be satisfied if all the murder and killing ceased on earth.

He would not be satisfied because *Matthew 5:21–22* (NIV)21/ “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’