The Beatitudes
Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsGod's law teaches us God's character, His love, His grace, His justice, His mercy, His truth. We are His people, we show who God is by bearing His image, that is by obeying His commandments, His love, His grace, His justice, His mercy, His truth.
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Today, we continue our series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount! We barely got our toes wet last week, just getting an intro, some background info to guide us into the next several weeks of exploring this incredible message. With these opening verses, Jesus turns everything upside down. Even to our sensibilities, these words are totally upside down, backwards!
Throughout the Old Testament, the idea of blessing carries great importance, great weight. The blessing of all blessings, known as the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24-26, which goes like this, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” gets at the heart of all human longing. True human longing is to be in God’s presence, to receive his blessing, his closeness, his power, his strength, his love, grace, mercy and peace.
But first, the word, blessed.
Blessed means happy, content, overabundant joy, exceedingly great delight.
Does that track with you? Perhaps, like me, you think of blessedness as a churchy term, a blessed person is someone who is perfect, someone who is always faithful, someone who obviously has God’s approval. You can tell them right away on social media. They’re amazing people, they clearly have their lives all put together. Me, sometimes have have trouble getting the right socks on the right feet!
And yet, our natural desires, our natural beliefs lead us to think that we can find that kind of joy and satisfaction elsewhere, in God’s creation, and not in the creator. So we look for it in things we can buy, places we can go, people we can watch (concerts, sports events, etc.), and people we can spend time with.
But even though all those things are really good, and really wonderful, after a while, our hearts lose interest. The new thing gets old, it is still great, but not as exciting as it once was. The places you can go, like a tropical vacation is amazing at first, but after a while, you long for home, home cooked meals, familiar places. The people you can watch are really great, but then, they inevitably disappoint, they don’t perform as you’d expected. Your friends and family are wonderful and stimulating, but after a while, you feel like being on your own, or doing something different. It’s no reflection on them, it just shows how our hearts are always looking for something more, something, someone greater.
What every heart, every human longs for is Jesus. Jesus is what we are really longing for, and he has shown us how to find him, and to find the joy that only He can bring! But just like our hearts are inclined to find our joy and true blessedness in other things, other places, other people. We also try to find our way to blessedness through other means, other ideas, teachings and insights.
The world is full of ideas. Some of them are great. Some, not so much. Some ideas dreamed up by humans correspond to reality, some do not.
Allow an illustration. Suppose you bought a beautiful, hand-built car. it is one of a kind, a thing of beauty. One day, it just refuses to start. Who would you want to give yo advice on how to get it going? The guy who designed and built it, or the guy who has a theoretical knowledge of cars, but who has never designed a car, built a car, or even driven a car?
When it comes to understanding our place in the world, who we are, we need look no further than the one who created us and loves us and cares for us and saved us from sin. We need look no farther than God himself.
So, remembering who Jesus is, we turn to Him to learn how things really are for us!
The first four beatitudes can be grouped together, as they describe how we ought to think and what we are to believe about ourselves. The second four build upon the first four, but show us how we can live by the power and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us.
So, Jesus, turns the ways of the world upside down and teaches that the poor in spirit are blessed. They believed then, and we believe now, don’t we, that those who are rich, those who are able to pull themselves up their own bootstraps, those who make their own way are blessed by God. God blesses them for the work they do.
Not so, says Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. The poor in spirit are the spiritually poor. They recognise that they are dead in their trespasses. That they have absolutely nothing of value, of spiritual, let alone physical value to offer to God. They are completely empty, the piggy bank is starving, there’s nothing in it. They recognise that there is nothing about them, apart from being created in God’s image, that makes God favour them. And such persons wholly depend upon Jesus’ offer of salvation. They understand God’s blessing is totally, completely gracious!
It is like knowing that you’re poor, homeless, unemployed. You have nothing, you’re dressed in rags. But then you get an invitation to go to dinner at the most luxurious house in town. You think there’s a mistake, but no, you are indeed invited. And when you get to the house, you hardly dare to go in. But you do, and they take you aside, they wash you, they clothe you, and they bring you into the room and seat you at an imporant place at the table.
That’s what Jesus has done. He’s invited us, he’s washed us, he clothed us with himself, and he invites us to dine with him. All we must do is believe and receive it. Those who are poor in spirit, do. And theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn; who grieve sin. They have an open and honest understanding of who they are before God. They realise their sin. And rather than trying to justify it, or renegotiating so as to make it not sin anymore, they submit to God’s perfect truth, and they see their sin as it really is, a total affront to God’s perfection. And seeing how sin utterly repugnant, that it is in total contrast to God’s purity, the mourners hate it, turn away from it, and the very knowledge of it grieves them. And they wish it wasn’t there at all—their own sin, but also the sin of the world. Sin that is seen in murder, violence, abuse, destruction, lying, cheating, stealing. So they turning to God, they pour out their confession and they receive from God comfort and assurance that he has removed their sin as far as the east is from the west, and he remembers it no more!
Blessed are the meek who demonstrate the heart of Christ Jesus himself. Jesus denied himself of all things so as to save us. He proclaimed judgement on the rich and powerful, for they were the ones who were oppressing the people, the poor and mourning. Jesus’ meekness is described in Philippians 2.1-11, how he suffered at the hands of evil men, suffering even to death by crucifixion. Even though he could have called 10000 angels, even though he is God in the flesh, he endured, and overcame! He won! And he inherited the earth—all power and authority in heaven and on earth is his! A meek person, in the steps of Jesus, is someone who is willing to suffer rather than inflict injury upon others. They have the heart and attitude of Jesus, who was in no way weak or spineless! They are the ones who inherit the earth, because they do not desire the earth for themselves.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied. Psalm 23 teaches that God leads us in paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake. God leads us into belief. Ephesians 2:8 explains that we are saved by faith, which in of itself is a gift of God, so that no one can boast. Belief, faith, comes from God. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are hungering and thirsting for right believing, right faith, truth! Abraham believed God and it was accredited to him as righteousness. We, not having a righteousness of our own, seek God and are satisfied. Jesus, the bread of life and the living water is the only thing that satisfies. We receive Christ and all his benefits. That is, we receive the very righteousness and right believing from Jesus. The Holy Spirit works out righteousness in us!
The next three beatitudes are a reflection, a response of having the Holy Spirit within us. The blessed are merciful because the Holy Spirit enables them to give mercy. Mercy is given because mercy has been received. Mercy is love for others, toward those in misery. It is having an attitude of forgiveness toward those who sin and sin against us. Jesus illustrates mercy in the parable of the Good samaritan.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Psalm 51 asks God for a clean heart, a pure heart. Psalm 24: 3-4 also describes the blessed as having clean hands and a pure heart—from the Holy Spirit—these are able to ascend the hill of the Lord. Such a person is without airs. Who you see is who they are. They are sincere, yes, but sincere to the Lord. There is sincerity, but it must be sincere as to its object. No doubt the prophets of Baal were sincere. But their god wasn’t real, so their sincerity didn’t mean a thing. We have to be sincere unto the Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Those who are sincere toward God, who deeply desire to see him, they will see him! He is real!
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Jesus came to reconcile sinners, to establish peace between God and us. We who believe in Jesus, will be peacemakers. We will make peace with others. We will surrender our status, humble ourselves before others, and be willing to suffer rejection and all else in order to be at peace. That’s what Jesus did on our behalf. Because of Jesus, we are made perfectly right with God. Because of Jesus we can be made perfectly right with each other.
The last beatitude addresses those who are blessed and who come under fire when they tell people the way to be right with God. For the cross of Christ is foolishness to some and a stumbling block to others. They won’t understand, and they revile them for it. Jesus is saying, don’t be surprised when it happens. As sons of God, we are ambassadors of reconciliation.
Related to this comes the eighth beatitude. Those who walk with Jesus will be out of step with the world. The world will not at all understand. Only those who are made alive by the Holy Spirit will be able to understand. The wicked will not tolerate the righteous.
God wants us to know, and to rejoice when the blessed face persecution. For then we will know that our reward will be great in heaven. Those who have received a reward here in this life , that’s all they get. Let’s not settle for that. Let’s aim for Heaven. Let’s aim for what we have in Christ! Let’s not get bogged down by depressing things. Let’s not get worked up about persecution, or struggles. According to Jesus, those are the dangers of following him. People will revile us on Jesus’ account. Be ready for it. Respond to it in meekness. Respond as one who is blessed, blessed by God! Blessings are graciously received, they are not earned.
Blessedness, the fantastic joyfulness that comes from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit to us, and is not found in the things of the earth themselves, but is found in God and then made more abundant when shared with others! Share Jesus’ blessedness everywhere you go this week! Amen.