(Matthew 5:1-10) Now
when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are
those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. (NIV)
I. On the Mountain
with Jesus
Picture yourself with
Jesus that day…Not pulling out his notes on the back of a
napkin,,, He’s just bubbling from the heart.
He starts the Sermon
on the Mount with the Beatitudes..
True or False: We call
the Beatitudes the Beatitudes because they are the attitudes that
we should be!
False: the word
“Beatitude” means “a state of utmost bliss”. We called them that
because Jesus starts every sentence with the word “blessed”
Blessed- makarios-
supremely fortunate or well off
But….If you read with
any level of understanding you don’t get two sentences in until
you know everything is not as it should be. Does this really make
logical sense?
“Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are those who
mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Isn’t that what
happens to you??? You’re crying your eyes out over some tragedy in
your life…Suddenly you remember that those who mourn are comforted
and not only do you instantly stop crying but when you realize how
fortunate you are you break into a grin from ear to ear then let
loose with a belly laugh. Right?
Those who mourn are
makarios- supremely well off……..Right??
(1)
Truth is Jesus wasn’t
pulling this style of teaching out of his hat. In the collection
of the Pharisees writings called the Talmud, a kind of a
commentary on the Scriptures written by the religious leaders of
that day, this style of using opposite statements to prove
a point was widely used. So the sentences didn’t sound odd at all
to the people listening. While it sound very strange to us to put
together two seemingly opposite thoughts to prove a point; it was
a stroke of divine genius that cause Jesus to imitate the
Pharisees style, to get a message across that was so different
from what they were teaching.
To those listening,
understanding the style was not difficult; understanding the
content was what was so difficult. While they were used to hearing
opposing points; they weren’t used to hearing these opposing
points!
Jesus speaks of :
Well off/ poor people
Happy/ mourners
Un-aggressive/
conquerors
Winning/ losers
And he picks up a word
that was often used in their society; it just was never used to
describe one of them. The word blessed was the word used to
describe the Greek gods who had whatever they wanted whenever they
wanted it who lived in an utter state of pure contentment. (makarios-
supremely well off)
So put this picture
together on the screen of your mind and you will start to get a
feel for what the people were hearing Jesus say that morning.
You want to be happy…
not just a little bit happy… think of the most contented state you
can possibly imagine and I will tell you how to achieve it. You
ready… everyone ready for some of the most important truth you’ve
ever heard in your lives.
1) “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Let me interpret: “ In
pure bliss are those who have the spirit of a poor person”
I gave you last week
characteristics of a poor person and I was careful to point out
the Jesus didn’t say, Blessed is the poor person, but Blessed is
the person with the spirit of a poor person! Let me condense all
of what I told you last week down into two sentences:
In pure bliss are
those people who have an inner understanding that in ourselves we
have absolutely nothing worth offering to God. (the spirit of a
poor person) Our only hope of righteousness is to form a complete
dependence on our all-powerful God!
(2) While many of us
would agree with that theology; that the created is supposed to
depend on the Creator…Our natural human tendency is to say to our
Creator… I know you are there, I know you made me, I know you made
everything around me in my world. Thank you very much for your
help in getting me here….. Now I can take it from here!
We have the innate
unconscious belief that we will find the most contentment as human
beings when we learn how to be independent and learn how to make
life happen without depending on anyone other than ourselves. As
much as society around you tries to beat that into your brain;
nothing could be further from the truth!
That’s not what Jesus
is saying at all: Jesus, God incarnate, says that your inner peace
will be in direct proportion to your grasp of how small and
incapable you really are, and how big and all-powerful your God
is!
Regardless of how much
you own or how successful you are by this worlds standards: when
you really start to understand this you are spiritually gaining
the attitude of a poor person. You’re starting to really get a
grip on this thing called “the kingdom of Heaven” which is in fact
the very living, throbbing life of Christ Himself, in you!
(Romans 14:17) For the
kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, (NIV)
He then goes on to the
second phrase of His sermon and the second phrase is not something
new and different but it’s an extension of the radical thinking
He’s already started.
Blessed are those who
mourn, for they will be comforted
Perfectly blissful are
those who are in deep lament… Some terrible trauma comes into your
life…your are overwhelmed with grief… suddenly you have a sense of
perfect bliss that comes washing over your soul??
We can and do try to
make that apply to the grieving times in our life but…In order to
understand what this second phrase means you need to follow the
pattern of thought started by the first phrase. The poorness
wasn’t so much in the physical (being without resources) as it was
an the attitude of the heart.
This beatitude
isn’t so much addressing the fact that God will comfort us when we
are in emotional trauma… (there are other Scriptures that tell us
that) but let’s face it… in the most comforted of those times we
would still struggle to describe ourselves as mourning,
yet…perfectly blissful.
(3) This mourning is
not a mourning of a heart broken by human grief; but rather the
mourning of a broken spirit.
David: (Psalms
51:16-17) You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will
not despise. (NIV)
Paul: (Romans 7:24-25)
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of
death? Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! …(NIV)
This mourning is the
acknowledging of our over whelming sinfulness…it’s the brokenness
that comes from fully realizing the full penalty of our own
sinfulness and understanding that without Jesus blood cleansing us
from our sin we are lost forever!!
You see a pattern
developing here??? The last six are going to be attitudes of the
heart as well…The entire rest of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus
attempt to wrestle these people’s minds away from following a
religion where outward rules where supposed to somehow change the
inner person to learning how to have a true change of heart
starting on the inside and working it’s way out.
Let’s look at the
third phrase and see how it fit’s the pattern
3) Blessed are the
meek, for they will inherit the earth.
You know right off the
bat Jesus is not talking about people who mumble when they talk
and won’t look you directly in the eye.
Meek--
supremely well off
are the un-aggressive conquerors…
forceful yet humble in
heart
Meekness isn’t…. to be
insecure, weak, unsure, unstable…
Meekness is… strength
under control!
Moses- meekest man who
ever lived yet forcefully led 3 million people
Meekness is disciplined
gentleness, harnessed energy, self secure humility.
(4) How does this fit the
pattern Jesus has started???
The meek succeed not
because of the force of their own power but because of the power
of God’s Spirit flowing through them. The meek gain spiritual
territory not by brute physical strength or enormous intelligence
but because they have learned how much their must depend on their
divine Creator
The meek person, like
Moses, can have enormous spiritual impact on the lives of
hundreds, thousands, even millions of other people because he
realizes that he/she is not the one in charge.
In the big Divine
picture; the one who operates with the power of the Holy Spirit
flowing through them accomplishes so much more eternally than the
one who operates in his/her own power.
Supremely fortunate are
those who don’t make big claims for themselves, God will fight
their battle for them!
See how these Beatitudes
build toward the same theme???? And then it’s almost like when
Jesus get to the forth sentence He, with a flourish, wraps a
sentence around the previous three to make it into a perfect
package.
4) Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled!!
Supremely fortunate are
those who’s number one goal in life is to submit themselves to God
to be shaped and molded and to then accomplish through his power
what they never could have done on their own!
5) Blessed are the
merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
An Albanian nun spent
sixteen years in an exclusive convent teaching geography to the
wealthiest Bengali and British daughters of Calcutta. One day on a
railway trip to the Himalayas, she said she heard a voice calling
her to change paths and minister to the poorest of the poor. Her
name was Teresa. She has become known around the world as Mother
Teresa.
If you had the choice to
spend the day tomorrow with Madonna or Mother Teresa who would you
want to spend the day with? A star spends their entire career
exalting themselves, basking in the adoration of others,
commanding and demanding of those who’s status is less than their
own, and getting vastly overpaid for working less hard than many
of us do…. The servants of this world, on the other hand, spend
their career working long hours for low/no pay, getting little or
no applause, wasting their talents and skills working for people
who can never pay them back or advance their career.
Who is the real winner
here?
Who would Jesus applaud
and who would he pity?
Whoever wants to save his
life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will
find it! Luke 9:24 (NIV)
I just came from the
funeral of my grandmother yesterday. One of my tasks was to try to
put together information from her children; my mother and aunts
and uncles that I could put into a general euology of who she was.
I would ask a question and they would give a brief answer then one
would say remember when and off they would go for the next 15
minutes while the younger generation sat scratching our heads. One
of the things I specifically noticed as I have on many other
funeral occasions was that nobody remembered, at least with any
affection what my grandmother had done for herself.
The only thing that
matters at the end of one’s life is what they did that affected
the lives of other people.
The sooner we all come to
understand that this life is not really about us, but about what
we can invest of our time, energy, and talents into the
lives of others; both for this life and for eternity ……..the
closer we draw to the kingdom of God
6) Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they will see God.
Supremely fortunate are
those who are totally open and sincere in their faith for they
will live in God’s presence!
Truly blessed are those
who, in this life develop an intense focus that imitates the focus
Jesus would have had if He were living your life in your place.
The more your motivations are pure; the more your leadership comes
from Christ himself; the more you
are living the “kingdom life”!
7) Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Supremely fortunate are
those who spend their lives trying to bring God’s peace into the
lives of those in their sphere of influence.
“In pure bliss” are those
who sort through the confusion the evil one has brought into their
lives and this world; and by the power and presence of God within
them use their lives as a conduit of God’s grace; flooding his
presence onto everyone their lives intersect with!
8) Blessed are those who
are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
So what if a few people,
who have no clue why they were placed on this earth, negatively
confront you as you go about your “Kingdom Building Life”. They
will answer for their misdeeds to God…as for you:
Supremely fortunate are
those who stand for God’s values and take rebuke for they will
spend eternity in Heaven without accusers!
Conclusion:
It’s so important for us
to pause in the madhouse; we call life and figure out what life is
really supposed to be all about…. Let’s ask ourselves:
1) Do I have the
dependent spirit of a poor person?
2) Do I have a broken
spirit before God?
3) Am I meek, do I
exhibit strength under control?
4) Do I thirst for
righteousness?
5) Is my life known for
it’s mercy to others?
6) Am I pure in my focus?
7) Do I dispense God’s
peace through my life?
8) Do I endure this
life’s rebuttals knowing that my greatest reward is still to come?
If so… as Jesus would
have said: The kingdom of Heaven has drawn near in your life.
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