#2 The Beatitudes

I. Introduction
A. Matthew 5:1–12 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
II. The relationship between the Beatitudes and the OT law
A. Last week we talked about the relationship between the ten commandments and the Beatitudes.
1. We talked about how Jesus was paralleling Moses in giving a law up on a mountain.
2. We talked about how the Beatitudes, though parallel to the ten commandments in terms of structure, were very different than the ten commandments in content.
3. We talked about how this might have raised questions in the minds of Christ’s hearers: Was Jesus setting up and alternative law? Was Jesus giving a law which superceded the law of Moses and the ten commandments?
4. And so, Jesus clarified, right after the Beatitudes, in Matt.5:17-20. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
5. Then, He goes on to apply these principles to the commandments of Moses.
a. Matt.5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not murder.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry, whoever insults his brother , whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
b. Matt.5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
c. And really most of the rest of the sermon on the mount (Matt.5:21-7:11) is practical application of these principles to various aspects of God's law and our lives
d. The sermon on the mount is an explanation of the true meaning of God's law, a meaning the Israelites missed because of the hardness of their hearts. Most of them understood the OT law merely as external requirements. You see, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was an external righteousness but the righteousness of the believer is internal as well as external. This is why Jesus says later on in the sermon on the mount: "Your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees." God's law pertains to the inside as well as to the outside.
B. The things Jesus taught in the Beatitudes were not really new.
1. The concept of being blessed to be poor in spirit, for example, had already been taught in:
a. Ps.51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
b. Ps.34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
C. But when Moses first gave the law, the Israelites took it as mainly outward and behavioral.
1. And even though, as the OT story progressed, there was more and more focus on the inward, especially in the prophets, by and large the Jews continued to focus on the outward side of the law, and on all the elaborations of their rabbis.
2. But then when Jesus comes, He really reinforces and emphasizes the inward aspect of the law.
3. It’s like the Jews primarily viewed the law as two dimensional. But Jesus, following up on what the prophets began, makes it three dimensional.
4. You have to go to elementary school before you can go to high school.
5. The ten commandments had to be given first.
6. Even little children can understand a lot about the ten commandments: obey your parents, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t want what belongs to your brother.
7. But the Beatitudes are over their heads. How do you explain being poor in spirit to a child? Or being meek, or pure in heart, or hungering after righteousness?
8. It requires some maturity and depth.
D. To this day, there are many who are more comfortable with the outward part of God’s law than the inward, who have a much easier time with the ten commandments than with the Beatitudes – even in the Christian church. Just like the Pharisees.
1. But you can’t pick your favorite. God has given us both, and Christ brought the two of them together in the sermon on the mount. According to the word of Christ, they must both be esteemed, honored and cherished.
III. The blessing of God
A. But the change isn’t only in what God is asking of us, but in what God gives us in response.
1. Only one of the ten commandments included a promise. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12. And this was a promise of earthly blessing: you will live long lives and prosper in the land of Canaan.
2. But the blessings promised by the Beatitudes are quite different. They are spiritual and heavenly: being given the kingdom of heaven = being comforted = inheriting the earth = being satisfied = receiving mercy = seeing God = being called sons of God = having the kingdom of heaven = great reward in heaven.
B. The first thing to notice here is the astonishing fact that God's blessing is available to men!
1. I mean, why would a holy God who hates sin lavish His generous blessing upon sinners who have spurned Him and rejected Him?
2. All of us want and desperately need God's blessing. Haven’t we all tasted life with His blessing and life without His blessing? Doesn’t His blessing make all the difference?
C. In the beatitudes God tells us how to qualify for God's blessing. But let’s not miss what blessing of God He is talking about!
D. Very often when we read this beatitude we focus exclusively on the requirement: poverty of spirit. But we miss the unmatchable blessing that God offers to the poor in spirit.
1. Being given the kingdom of heaven, – We have been given a kingdom !!! Not just a house, not just a city, but a KINGDOM !!! It's ours!!! Its land, its people, its resources, its treasures, its power, its authority, its glory.
2. the comfort of God,
3. inheriting the earth,
4. satisfaction,
5. being the object of God’s mercy,
6. seeing God,
7. being called a child of God,
8. receiving great reward in heaven.
E. The one who is given these things is a very rich person!
1. According to Jesus, there is a great treasure to be had! A treasure worth infinitely more than anything we can ever possess in this life. This treasure doesn’t just exist, but it is available to ordinary humans like me and you!
2. Have you ever noticed how little children cannot appreciate big places like Disney world or the Grand Canyon because their eyes are not big enough to grasp it all. They just see what is right around them. And so often, that is just the way we are!
3. These riches are so great that Paul has to pray for the Ephesians that they will be given eyes that are big enough to see it all (Eph.1:15-20).
F. But the blessing of God doesn’t come upon everyone! The treasure of God’s friendship is not universally enjoyed. It is reserved for a peculiar people. It is reserved for those who will not follow in the way of the world, but for those who choose to enter into the narrow gate and to travel the hard way, as Jesus tells us later in the sermon on the mount (Matt.7:13-14). They suffer the scourge of the world’s ridicule and scorn, but they enjoy the great treasure of God’s favor and fellowship.
IV. You see, in the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us that His ways are contrary to the ways of the world.
A. The world tells us it’s a curse to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to be righteous and pure, to be persecuted. But Jesus comes along and says, ‘You’re blessed when you’re like that.”
B. The world says you save yourself by assertiveness, by self-confidence, by standing up for yourself, by demanding your rights. But Jesus saves the poor in spirit, the meek, those persecuted for doing the right thing.
C. Jesus says you can’t save yourself, but God can save you. So, live like you’re trusting God to save you by being meek, by being poor in spirit, by mourning over your sin.
D. We don’t need to climb over people and cause others to fail in order to succeed. Rather, we must trust God to prosper us and tend to the business of blessing others, being merciful to others, and being a peacemaker.
E. Prosperity doesn’t come by conniving or outsmarting or manipulating. Rather, God prospers those who trust Him to prosper them, who are pure in heart and who hunger & thirst for righteousness.
F. Perhaps nowhere else can we see the contrast between the world's mentality and God's mentality more starkly than here in the beatitudes:
1. The world elevates the person who is self-confident. God elevates the one who is poor in spirit.
2. The world elevates the person who feels good about himself. God elevates the one who mourns over his sin.
3. The world elevates the person who is assertive. God elevates the one who is meek.
4. The world elevates the person who hungers for a thrill. God elevates the one who hungers for righteousness.
5. The world elevates the person who is cool. God elevates the man one is merciful.
6. The world elevates the person who has a dirty mind. God elevates the one who is pure in heart.
7. The world elevates the person who is aggressive. God elevates the one who is a peacemaker.
8. The world elevates the person who is popular & and famous. God elevates the one who is persecuted for righteousness sake.
G. We must realize that we are living in a completely different world than the citizens of this earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. We don't really belong here. We are strangers, pilgrims. We are foreigners. This is not our home.
H. Jesus’ word condemns human pride and earthlimindedness.
V. Conclusion
A. In one sense, the beatitudes reflect various facets of Christ-like living. In another sense, though, the beatitudes speak to us one single message. In one sense they all say the same thing. In one sense they are synonymous.
1. There is an overall meaning here, like we saw last week with the ten commandments.
2. The condition: the poor in spirit = those who mourn = the meek = those who hunger & thirst for righteousness = the merciful = the pure in heart = the peacemakers = those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake = when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
3. Summarize them: having a humble heart before God leads to exaltation.
a. 1Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”
b. Phil.2: Christ is our example. He obtained the highest glory by humbling Himself, even to the point of death. This is the last thing we would have expected: the way up is to go down.
B. And here we see what is perhaps the most powerful and beautiful thing about the Beatitudes: they are a description of Jesus.
1. He was poor in spirit, He was mournful, He was meek, He hungered & thirsted for righteousness, He was merciful, He was pure in heart, He was the peacemaker, and then He was persecuted for righteousness’ sake, reviled and persecuted, and all kinds of evil were uttered against Him.
2. And now He wants to live in us, so that we can be happy and hopeful even when we’re poor, when we’re mourning, when we’re persecuted and reviled, so we can find comfort in His promises that the seed we sow today will bear the harvest of the kingdom of heaven, and inheriting the earth, and receiving mercy, and seeing God.
C. This is near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Just before this, Jesus had called His first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James and John. So, these guys are just getting started. Christianity was just getting started. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus paints a picture of this new way, He sets out what it means to be His follower, His disciple, a member of His kingdom. But He also is telling them who He is – in stark contrast to who they are.
1. Think about Peter. The Beatitudes are like a description of everything Peter is not.
a. He is not poor in spirit.
b. He is not meek. He does not hunger after righteousness.
c. He is not a peacemaker.
d. He is not pure in heart.
e. He is not merciful.
f. He does not rejoice when he is persecuted.
2. Jesus designed the Beatitudes to be shocking and disturbing – even shattering.
a. This is not what the disciples were at present. But this is who Jesus was – and what His disciples would be in the future.
b. The Beatitudes may not be what we’re like in the present, but, as the Lord fills us, and conforms us to His image, it represents who we are becoming.
D. And we have a mighty God! He can take the proudest man and make him poor in spirit. He can take the most arrogant man and make him meek. He can take the most corrupt and filthy-minded man and make him pure in heart. He can take the most vile and lustful man and make him hunger and thirst after righteousness.
1. And not only do we have a mighty God, but we have a patient Father. He doesn't demand impossible things and then smash us when we don't measure up. God sees us as His beloved children, because He sees us through His Son Jesus. He is ready to help us in our weakness.
2. He uses circumstances as His rod of love to gently teach us how much we need Him and how we must trust Him, slowly transforming us into the image of His Son.
3. Our natural orientation is toward the affairs of this world, but slowly, and usually painfully, God is prying our hearts away from concerns of this world and teaching us to care more about Him, more about His kingdom, more about His promises.
4. He is humbling us. He’s teaching us to treat others in the way He has treated us. He’s teaching us to trust in Him even when He allows us to suffer. He’s teaching us to love others even when they mistreat us.
E. Right now I am enjoying the privilege of teaching a SS class on marriage.
1. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about marriage is that the verses in the Bible which specifically address marriage are not the only verses which apply to marriage. We can’t just read the verses on marriage and think we’re getting everything God says about how we should be relating to our spouses.
2. You know what part of Scripture which doesn’t mention marriage has a lot of application to the way we relate to our spouses? The Beatitudes.
3. Who’s supposed to be the meek one? Both husband and wife are supposed to be meek – and poor in spirit, and pure in heart, and mournful over their sin, and merciful, and peacemakers, and hungry for righteousness, and content in the face of unfair persecution.
4. You can’t be a good spouse till your life reflects the Beatitudes! We’ve got a long way to go!