Tag: Beatitiudes

Blessed Are the Hungry and Thirsty

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Blessed Are the Hungry and Thirsty

Matthew 5:6

Have you found that our study of The Beatitudes here in Matthew 5 has been both encouraging and challenging? I certainly have. These verses at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount give us a portrait of a disciple of Jesus Christ. They encompass both the character and aspirations of citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We have discovered that the focus of the first three of the beatitudes has been to show us that disciples of Jesus begin with a sense of their deep need for God’s grace.

Jesus first told us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven“; and there, we learned that the first attitude of a disciple of Jesus is the recognition that we stand before God as spiritual paupers, utterly bankrupt before Him. Then, Jesus taught us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted“; and there, we learned that we must have a sense of deep sorrow and remorse over the sin in our lives that caused us to stand in such bankruptcy before God in the first place. And then, Jesus told us, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth“; and in this third beatitude, we learned the frame of mind that should characterize us as a result of coming to terms with the first two. If we truly realize that we stand before a holy God in a state of absolute abject poverty of spirit, and if we are also genuinely broken-hearted over our own sin, then we will approach God meekly—not coming to Him boldly and arrogantly, but meekly and humbly depending only upon God’s mercy and grace. We will – as we have said – become “tamed” in our spirits before Him and before others.

Now, this leads us to the fourth beatitude. The first three were building up to this one. If you are the kind of person that is described in those first three beatitudes, then you’ll realize that the one thing you need more than anything else—the one thing that you know that you do not have in and of yourself but want above all else—is righteousness, a right standing with God and the right conduct that comes from a relationship with God. This is what you will most long for; the thing that you will crave from God; the thing that you cannot live without. It’s the thing, in fact, that you will hunger and thirst after from the very depths of your being.

And that’s why this beatitude is such good news. Because it’s here that Jesus gives us the greatest and most remarkable promise that any poverty-stricken, broken-hearted, meek and humble sinner could ever hear: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

This isn’t describing a “take it or leave it” kind of attitude. It’s describing a “cannot live without it and must have it no matter what it costs” kind of longing! It’s a craving even greater than the one we would feel if we were starving for food or parched for water, because those cravings are only concerned with the need of our bodies, but this craving concerns the deepest and most profound need of our souls. This is the kind of longing that Jesus is describing in this fourth beatitude.

Like the other beatitudes, it has two parts. The first affirms the blessedness of the longing. And I want you to notice that it points us back to the first three beatitudes that highlighted the depth of our need. It sums up that one thing we lack before God, that one thing we desperately need, in one word: “righteousness”. And the second part promises to us the complete satisfaction of that need, that those who have this intense hungering and thirsting after righteousness will be filled.

This beatitude is really the hinge on which the others hang. Just as the first half of this beatitude pointed us back to the first three beatitudes, the second half of the fourth beatitude points us ahead to the remaining four. The last four beatitudes are descriptions of the kind of person who has been brought into a state of righteousness by God and who now lives a completely different kind of life by God’s grace. This kind of disciple is now “merciful”, “pure in heart”, a “peacemaker”, and—especially notice this one!—”persecuted” for the sake of “righteousness”.

Can you see how fundamental this one beatitude is? It stands as a bridge between the first three beatitudes, which show us our need for God’s grace, and the last four, which show us the life lived in response to God’s grace. Joining them together is this beatitude that shows us God fills the disciple with what he needs and longs for: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

So as with the other beatitudes that we studied, let’s ask two questions:

1. What does it mean to “hunger and thirst for righteousness”?

The Greek word for “righteousness” (dikaiosynē) is one of the most important words in all of the New Testament. This noun is found some 92 times in the New Testament sometimes translated “justice” or “justification”. It is found another 81 times in its adjective form (dikaios) meaning “righteous” or “just”. It’s verb form is used another 40 time meaning to “justify” or “make righteous”. It’s the word that gives us the great theme of many of Paul’s letters, especially his letter to the Romans, where he explains how a man or woman becomes “justified” or “righteous” before God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Righteousness in the Bible has at least three aspects: legal, moral, and social.[1] I believe that, to some degree, all three are being touched on in this beatitude.

Legal righteousness is justification, a right relationship with God. Its focus is on an act of God’s grace, whereby He looks down upon a guilty sinner and declares him or her to be “righteous” in His sight. God “imputes” (Rom. 4:6) righteousness to the guilty sinner putting the righteousness of Christ to their account. This is positional righteousness. This is the greatest need that anyone could ever have: the need to be declared “righteous” in God’s sight. Apart from this justification by faith in Jesus Christ, no one can stand before God, for the Bible declares, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). Jesus Christ is the only exception. He is called “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) and “The LORD our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). This righteousness is worth hungering after.

Another aspect of righteousness is one that we might call the “moral” aspect. This is practical righteousness. Moral righteousness is that righteousness of character and conduct which pleases God. This is the righteousness that God implants in us through the sanctifying work of His Holy Spirit through His word. The disciple of Jesus should hunger and thirst to be practically righteous, like Jesus.

In the context here in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus uses the word “righteousness” several times in this “moral” sense. In Matthew 5:10 Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That’s the eighth and final beatitude. When you take the fourth and eighth beatitudes together, you get something like this: We are to hunger and thirst after a kind of life that will cause some people to persecute us for our faith. So righteousness is a lifestyle that distinguishes us as true Christians and invites opposition from the world.

Jesus uses “righteousness” again in Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Pharisees had concocted a religious system built around attendance at the temple. It involved intricate rules and regulations and meant following precepts and traditions. It was done externally and hypocritically (Matt. 6:1) to make them look good to others. Jesus shows that true righteousness starts in the heart and changes a person from the inside out. True disciples seek a righteousness that doesn’t need to be seen by others, but only by God.

Most of us already know the last verse by heart: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). This touches the priorities of life. What is it that you are seeking in life? Fame? Fortune? Career advancement? A good salary? A secure future? A happy retirement? A marriage partner? The fulfillment of your dreams? As good as those things may be, they aren’t the most important things in life. Put God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness first. When you do, everything else you need will be given to you. Seeking “His righteousness” means putting God’s Kingdom first. It means trusting Him in all of life’s circumstances. It means seeking to do that which is pleasing to God.

Putting these passages together we find that we are to hunger and thirst after a truly Christ-like lifestyle that changes us from the inside out so that we no longer seek the praise of men but that causes us to seek God’s approval above everything else.[2]

So first, we should hunger and thirst after “legal” righteousness, and second after “moral” righteousness. And there’s a third aspect to “righteousness” that we should hunger and thirst after; and I believe it should be mentioned last, because it can’t truly be “righteousness” unless it is founded on the other two. John Stott calls it “social” righteousness. It’s a righteousness that has its focus on God’s will being done in this world. It is concerned with seeking to see oppressed people set at liberty, the pursuit of justice in our laws, and compassion toward the downtrodden. Without question, a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ will look upon this dark world of cruelty and injustice, and will “hunger” and “thirst” after “social” righteousness for all. But we should stress again that it must be an outflow of the others – that is, a “legal” standing of righteousness before God, and a “moral” pursuit of righteousness in one’s own life. It would be hypocritical to “hunger” and “thirst” after “social” righteousness, without having a greater hungering and thirsting after the justification by God’s grace that leads to righteousness in our own lives first. This third aspect of righteousness will never be fully realized until Christ, the righteous King, returns and rules.

Now, stop and think about all the other things that the people of this world hunger and thirst after. They long for such things as power, riches, influence, attention, admiration, the freedom to gratify their sinful lusts, and revenge. How many do you know who hunger and thirst after “righteousness”? It was the hunger after something other than righteousness—Adam and Eve’s hunger after the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—that brought about the fall of all humanity into sin.

But then even we, who name the name of Christ, hunger after lessor things without having “righteousness” as our first longing. There are too many that are hungering and thirsting for “blessings” from God rather than hungering and thirsting for God Himself and the righteousness that He provides in Christ. Righteousness is not found by hungering for blessedness. Blessedness is found in hungering for righteousness.

And think about this: you can’t hunger and thirst after something that you’re already in full possession of. Although, as Christians, we are positionally righteous, we still need more and more of the righteousness of Christ imparted to our lives. In fact, the way that Matthew phrases this beatitude shows several aspects of this longing for righteousness.

First, the tense of the Greek verbs used for “hungering” and “thirsting” is the present tense. It describes a continuous, ongoing kind of action. In other words, it’s a hungering and thirsting that is to characterize our lives before Him all of the time. We never come to a point in our lives when we feel contented that we’ve finally achieved “righteousness”; because that won’t happen until we are glorified with Christ in heaven. The pursuit of righteousness is to be a life-long pursuit for a disciple.

Second, this hunger and thirst are not partial—no, they are complete. The form of the word “righteousness” indicates that we don’t want just a little portion of righteousness, we want all of it. He doesn’t say that we are to “hunger and thirst” for merely “some” righteousness. He uses the form of the noun that indicates we are to hunger and thirst for the whole thing! All of it! Nothing less than complete righteousness before God!

Jesus said, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). The standard for righteousness is not the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:21), but to the righteousness of our heavenly Father Himself. We’re not supposed to be satisfied with just a “little righteousness”. Our Father is fully righteous, and we are to hunger and thirst after full righteousness as well.

Third, Jesus is saying that this desire, this hunger and thirst, are not casual—no, they are all-consuming. When you’re hungry and thirsty in the way that Jesus is describing, you can think of nothing else. It is the hunger of a man who is starving to death. It is the thirst of a man who is dried to the bone. Longing for righteousness becomes your singular focus.

The language Jesus uses here speaks of a passionate spiritual desire to be right with God and to get rid of sin. This longing is expressed again and again in Scripture, and nowhere more clearly than in the Psalms: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1–2); “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1); “2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2). These are not formal religious phrases, or superficial emotions. They are wholehearted, earnest, urgent cries from someone for whom life without God’s righteousness is the spiritual equivalent of starving to death. How often do we feel like that?[3]

Listen, hunger is a sign of life. Watch a little baby when feeding time comes around; it has an intense desire for its mother’s milk. It is a sign of life. Spiritual hunger shows spiritual life. This is precisely what Peter meant when he wrote, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). The person who does not have a hunger for the Word of God as nourishment for his soul should examine himself to see if there is any evidence of genuine conversion.[4]

Hunger is also a sign of health. Doctors often ask a patient ‘How is your appetite?’ because lack of appetite may be symptomatic of a serious disorder. When a professing Christian has little or no appetite for the things of God, something is seriously wrong, even if outwardly everything seems okay. The late Scottish preacher, Thomas Guthrie, challenges us with these words: “If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord’s table, any person better than Christ, any indulgence better than the hope of heaven—take alarm!”[5]

May God keep at us until we’re “hungry” and “thirsty” for nothing less than righteousness! May the Holy Spirit show us increasingly how short of righteousness we are in our lives, and how much of a blessing it is to become more and more like Jesus. And may He build that hunger and thirst into us so much that we cannot rest, but must pursue it. May we pray like the old Scotsman once cried out to God in prayer, “O God, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be!”

This leads us to consider . . .

2. What blessing is promised to those who long for righteousness?

In a word, it’s “satisfaction”! If they desire righteousness, Jesus promises that they will be “filled“. I found that the word Jesus uses for “filled” (xortazõ) occurs 15 times in the New Testament. And in all but two of those times (this passage, and the parallel to it in Luke 6:21), it refers to eating food until one is full. And so, metaphorically, the word here describes a state of spiritual satisfaction for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus promises to give them the desire of their heart – even to the point of filling them to fullness.

Notice that this verb “filled” is in a passive voice; and this means that, with reference to the filling of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, it is something that is done for them by another. Righteousness not a something that they achieve for themselves or earn through their own efforts, but they are filled, satisfied with righteousness, by God HImself.

How hopeless we’d be if it were up to ourselves to satisfy our own craving for righteousness! After all, we’re the one’s who got ourselves into the desperate need for righteousness in the first place! But praise God! He Himself satisfies that craving in us. I love the invitation that God gives to all of us in Isaiah 55;

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come and buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good.
And let your soul delight itself in abundance” (Isaiah 55:1-2).

It’s as if God says, “Come to the banquet of righteousness! Eat it all! I give it to you free of charge! And don’t come to the table with anything but an appetite!”

And how does this satisfaction of our hunger and thirst – this fullness of righteousness as a gift of God’s free and unmerited grace – come to be ours? Through Jesus! Jesus Himself said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

Do you hunger after righteousness? Then go to Jesus. He spoke of Himself as “food” in order to describe a deep relationship of trust in Him, through identifying ourselves with His death on the cross and with the shedding of His blood. He said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (John 6:54).

And do you thirst after righteousness? Then go to Jesus. He cried out one day and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). The woman at the well gave Jesus a cup of water to drink; but He told her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

Full satisfaction of our hunger and thirst for righteousness is found in Christ. But here’s the strange thing about this kind of satisfaction, because it leaves you hungering and thirsting for more. The more He fills you with righteousness, the more you want. The more satisfied you are in Christ, the more of Christ you desire. Like all the qualities included in the beatitudes, hunger and thirst are perpetual characteristics of the disciples of Jesus, as perpetual as poverty of spirit, meekness and mourning. Not till we reach heaven will we ‘hunger no more, neither thirst any more’, for only then will Christ our Shepherd lead us ‘to springs of living water’ (Rev. 7:16-17).[6]

Let me close by asking you; does this kind of hunger and thirst characterize you? Do you long for righteousness—crave it with all your being? Ask yourself: Am I longing not merely to be good, but to be godly? Do I really want to get rid of my sins—every single one of them? Do I long to be holy in my thoughts as well as in my speech? Am I prepared to put to death everything that belongs to my flesh? Am I determined to resist the devil? Do I really want to have done with self-pity, self-interest, self-protection, self-justification, self-concern and self-assertion? Do I want to see the fruit of the Spirit produced in my life? Do I truly want to be like Christ in his humility, kindness, compassion and love, and in his perfect obedience to God’s law?[7]

May we truly hunger and thirst for righteousness. And being filled by Christ Himself, may we hunger and thirst for more! This is the pathway to real blessedness![8]

 

[1] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 45.

[2] Ray Prichard, https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/full-stomachs-and-empty-hearts/

[3] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 140–141.

[4] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 142.

[5] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 142.

[6] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 46.

[7] John Blanchard, The Beatitudes for Today (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 1996), 156.

[8] Greg Allen, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2004/070404.htm#f1 . I drew several points of my sermon from Allen’s excellent treatment of this passage.

/ / , , , / 0

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Matthew 5:4

In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we have landed upon The Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). The Beatitudes is a section of Jesus’ great Sermon that describes what it looks like to be a true disciple of His. It serves as a very important introduction to The Sermon on The Mount; because it teaches us what to “be” before the Sermon itself tells us what to “do” We are taking our time in this portion of Scripture so we can carefully consider each of the eight assertions that are made in it.

The first Beatitude taught us that, in order to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must first come to God in the deep poverty of our soul, as a man or woman who realizes how truly needy he or she is. “Blessed are the poor in spirit“, Jesus said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). And in those words, we learn that the first aspect of being a disciple is to be someone who recognizes their spiritual bankruptcy and therefore their need for God’s grace. A great illustration of this was the tax collector in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18 who “standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13).

The second Beatitude builds upon the first. It teaches us that a true disciple starts off not only realizing how desperately needy they are in the sight of God because of their sin but also goes beyond that to express deep sorrow and mourning over their sins. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

It’s not enough to simply recognize—in a merely intellectual way—that I am a bankrupt sinner before God. Once I realize the poverty of my soul, I must also feel God’s own grief and sorrow and pain for my sins. It’s not enough to have made confession; I must also experience contrition! And that sense of mourning over our sins is what this second Beatitude is meant to instill in us: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

I probably don’t need to tell you that such an idea as I’ve just described is contrary to almost everything we see in the world around us. The unbelieving world is very glad to embrace the ‘sentimental’ idea that those who “mourn” in a general sense will be comforted but certainly not if what they are “mourning” over is sin. The people of this world structure their lives around ignoring and avoiding the whole idea of feeling bad about their sin. Much sin in our society is not grieved. It’s not disapproved of. It’s not merely tolerated. They laugh at sin and scoff those who shun sin calling them prudes or kill-joys. Our society doesn’t mourn sin; it mourns those who mourn sin.

And please understand; it’s not that God is against laughter and joy. Far from it! He is the original inventor of laughter and joy. In fact, each of these Beatitudes begins with the announcement of eternal “blessedness” or “happiness”; and together, they all show us God’s way to true blessing. No; God is not opposed to real laughter and joy. Instead, God is opposed to the shallow versions of laughter that divert us from real, eternal joy Jesus said in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21). But “Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25).

The words of this beatitude fall into two parts, first, an assertion that mourners are blessed persons; second, a reason, because they shall be comforted.[1] Let’s look closer at this second Beatitude by asking[2] . . .

1. Who are the mourners?

MacArthur notes that in Greek there are nine words that express sorrow, but that “of the nine terms used for sorrow, the one used here (pentheo, mourn) is the strongest, the most severe. It represents the deepest, most heartfelt grief, and was generally reserved for grieving over the death of a loved one.[3] This word is found 45 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

It describes the mourning of Abraham for his wife Sarah (Gen. 23:2) and Jacob mourning for his son Joseph whom he thought had been killed (Gen. 37:34, 35). Samuel mourns over Saul and his failure to obey God (1 Sam. 15:35, 16:1). David mourns for his son Absalom (2 Sam. 13:37, 19:1). All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for good King Josiah at his death (2 Chr. 35:24). Figuratively Jerusalem’s gates mourn over the coming destruction (Isa. 3:6). Several verses refer to “the land” (the land of Israel) mourning over the sin of God’s people (Jer. 23:10 because of the curse, Hos 4:3, Joel 1:10). God’s Messiah will come to comfort all who mourn (Isa. 61:2-3). Daniel mourned over Israel’s sin for 3 entire weeks (Dan. 10:1). Ezra mourns over the unfaithfulness of the exiles in marrying foreign women (Ezra 10:6). Nehemiah mourns over the great distress of the remnant who were back in Jerusalem (Neh. 1:4). The people weep and mourn upon hearing the Words of the Law read (Neh. 8:9). Zechariah prophesies a time when the Lord “will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10).

So, although this word “mourn” can refer to grief and sorrow over death and other losses, in this context it particularly refers to sorrow over sin. Like those prophesied in Zechariah, this “mourning” is the agonizing realization that it was my sins that nailed to the cross the Lord of glory. When I look upon the cross and truly understand the great price my sins cost my precious Savior, how can I feel anything about my sins but great mourning, and sorrow, and deep remorse? If I’m truly a disciple of the Son of God, how could I be indifferent, or insensitive, or hard-hearted to the great price of the sins that resulted in so much of His own suffering?

Jesus mourned over sin. In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem and wept over it. He wept over it because He had presented Himself to Israel as the Messiah, and they rejected Him, and that city and those people are going to be destroyed and devastated in God’s judgment. Jesus’ mourning is over sin and its effects in the lives of people.

James 4:8-9 confirm that this mourning should be over sin.

8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (James 4:8-9).

What kind of mourning over sin does God bless?

The puritan, Thomas Watson, points out several kinds of false mourning over sin. First, a despairing kind of mourning. Judas Iscariot is the example. He confessed his sin, he regretted it, he justified Christ, he made restitution (Matthew 27). But it was a mourning joined with despair. His was not repentance unto life (Acts 11:18), but rather unto death.[4]

There is hypocritical mourning. King Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD” (1 Samuel 15:24). But Saul played the hypocrite in his mourning, for he did not take shame to himself, but said: “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel” (1 Sam. 15:30). The true mourner makes the worst of his sin. Saul labours to make the best of sin.[5]

Also, forced mourning is not true mourning over sin. Such was Cain’s mourning after he murdered his brother Abel. He mourned, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” (Genesis 4:13). His punishment troubled him more than his sin; to mourn only for fear of hell is like a thief that weeps for the penalty rather than the offense.[6]

Merely external mourning is fake. Later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus will talk about the fasting of the hypocrites “with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting” (Matt. 6:16). Such was Ahab’s mourning at the convicting words of Elijah, “he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.” (1 Kings 21:27). His clothes were torn, but his heart was not broken. He had sackcloth but no sorrow.[7]

Real mourning is a matter, not merely of empty words or external actions—it is the condition of the heart before God. True mourning is spiritual; that is, when we mourn for sin more than the suffering it brings. David cried out, “my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:3). God had threatened that the sword should ride in a circuit in his family, but David does not say, “The sword is always before me,” but “My sin is always before me.” It was the sin against God that troubled him. He confessed “Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight” (Psa. 51:4).

True mourning for sin confesses sins in particular. The truly repentant person is like a wounded man. He comes to the doctor and shows him all his wounds, “Here I was cut with the sword; here I was shot with a bullet.”  In Judges 10:10, “the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, ‘We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!’” They mourned for their idolatry.

True mourning for sin is joined to a hatred for sin and a zeal for purity. True mourning begins in the love of God, and ends in the hatred of sin.[8] Paul writes to the Corinthians,

10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Cor. 7:10-11).

True mourning for sin is constant. It describes not just our initial experience of conviction and contrition when we are justified. Notice the tense of the verb: it is not “have mourned,” but those who “mourn”—a present and continuous experience. We continue to mourn over the sins which we commit daily. We should have an ever-deepening awareness of the depravity of our flesh, the deceitfulness of our heart, and the corruption of our mind apart from Christ. Like Paul, we cry out, “O wretched man that I am” (Rom. 7:24).[9] Spiritual mourning continually operates in the life of the Christian. For as he sins it brings grief, and grief causes him to turn to Christ and the sufficiency of His death; then he is comforted again. “Whenever the Christian is conscious of his own sin,” writes Ferguson, “he will be grieved by it” [20]. Grief leads to repentance and comfort. 

God wants us to mourn over how our sin has offended Him. The Bible tells us that sin is “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4); that it is the opposite of faith (Rom. 14:23); that it is the deliberate devising of foolishness (Prov. 24:9); that it is knowing to do good but not doing it (James 4:17); and that it is the expression of unrighteousness (1 John 5:17). It is an offense against our holy God! No wonder it should be grieved over! Do feel the pain of our sin against God?

There is a natural consequence to our inward focus of spiritual mourning. We are affected outwardly as well. God wants us to mourn over sin in our world as well. Like the Psalmist we cry, ” Rivers of water run down from my eyes, Because men do not keep Your law.” (Psa. 119:136). We realize that the kingdom of God encompasses the world, and we desire to see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters covers the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). God wants us to mourn over all the injustice, and hurt, and alienation, and spiritual darkness, and war, and hatred, and conflict that sin has brought upon the people of this world that He loves. He wants us to mourn over the fact that there are so many people in this world – people that He has made for His own glory – who refuse to worship or honor Him. He wants us to mourn over the fact that people who reject His grace through Christ will suffer hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity, because of their refusal. God takes no delight in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11). It breaks His heart and He wants us to have broken hearts as well.

Mourning is unpleasant. No one wants to mourn. But we note that Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The sort of mourning He calls us to in this Beatitude leads to something good. It leads to a great blessedness. It leads to God’s promise of comfort.

This leads us, next, to ask . . .

2. Why are they blessed?

First of all, understand that there’s nothing of sentimentalism in Jesus’ idea of “comfort”. These words aren’t meant as a mere pat on the head – a mere, condescending little “There, there . . .” – to those who mourn. The Greek word translated “comforted” is a strong word. It’s a compound word (parakaleõ) that basically means “to call for” or “to invite” someone to “come alongside” someone else. Figuratively, it means to “to exhort” someone, “to encourage,” “comfort,” or “console” someone. It’s related to the word used to describe the ministry of the Lord Jesus; “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). It’s related to the name given to the Holy Spirit when Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper . . .” (John 14:16).

Notice that we do not comfort ourselves, it is a comfort that God Himself gives. Paul writes, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5). Jesus once quoted that comforting passage of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue at Nazareth and said it was fulfilled in Himself (see Luke 4:17-19). Those who truly mourn over sin will be comforted by Christ Himself. This is because Jesus deals completely with the sin over which true mourners mourn! He brings a complete comfort and consolation to those who mourn, because the cause of their mourning, their sin, is completely removed!

Therefore, King David wrote, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psalm 32:1-2). He could affirm, “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

“They shall be comforted.” This gracious promise comes first in that Divine consolation which immediately follows justification, the forgiveness of sins and the removal of the load of guilt we carry because of our sins. Jesus promised, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).[10] We continue to receive this comfort of forgiveness throughout our sanctification process as disciples of Jesus.

And in an ultimate sense, God comforts those who mourn in that He promises one day to glorify them in the kingdom of heaven when Jesus comes again. He will bring them into the state of sinless perfection that He Himself enjoys; and then to take them to live with Him forever in a New Heaven and a New Earth in which every trace of sin will be forever removed. We’re told in the Book of Revelation this about the New Jerusalem; “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes and abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21:27). And of those who live there with Him, we’re told, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)

Truly then, those who mourn will indeed be comforted!

How do we experience this type of mourning which God comforts? First, much like I suggested last time when we talked about being “poor in spirit,” we should begin by seeing God for who He is. In Isaiah 6 when the prophet gets a vision of the glorious Lord who is “Holy, holy, holy,” he cries out “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.” (Isa. 6:5). Martyn Lloyd-Jones noted, “The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God,” and I would add, that is the way to spiritual mourning as well [Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 52].

Sinclair Ferguson concurs, “It is this-his sight of God-that has made him mourn. Paradoxically, it is the same sight of God that will bring him comfort” [The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World, 19]. Where do we see God? We look into the pages of God’s Word, that infallible revelation of God. We meditate upon Scripture. We contemplate the Lord; see how He has worked in creation and most of all, in redemption. We look at the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, to His perfectly holy life, and then to the cross where He bears our sins in death.

Second, I would suggest we pray and ask God to take away any hardness of heart that we might have toward sin. Thomas Watson, wrote, “It is not heinousness of sin but hardness of heart that damns.”[11] The Bible says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Pray and ask God to take away your hardness of heart, so that you are then set free to feel the pain of sin and properly mourn over it!

Third, I would urge that, when God reveals it to us, we confess our sin immediately! King David wrote,

When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgression to the LORD,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah (Psalm 32:3-5).

To “confess” our sins literally means “to say the same thing” about them that God says. We cannot mourn over our sins as God wants us to, until we submit to seeing them and speaking of them as He himself does. And we do this in a very personal way when we confess them to Him and call them for what they are.

For the world, grieving sin is regressive and constricting; for the Christian, it is the pathway to joy. In it is the promise of blessedness and eternal comfort. Imagine the implications. If Matthew 5:4 is true—if Jesus really meets repentance with comfort, not condemnation—then no longer do you need to fear being exposed. No longer do you have to present an airbrushed version of yourself to fellow redeemed sinners. No longer do you need to fear studying your heart and plumbing the depths of your disease.[12]

—————————————————————————-

[1] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 59.

[2] Greg Allen, Blessed Mourners, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2004/061304.htm Copyright © 2004 Bethany Bible Church, All Rights Reserved, used by permission given on website. I adapted Allen’s outline and used some of his points in developing this sermon.

[3] John MacArthur, New Testament Commentary: Matthew 1-7, Chicago, Moody Press.

[4] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 61.

[5] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 61.

[6] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 61–62.

[7] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 62.

[8] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 65–66.

[9] Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 19.

[10] Arthur Walkington Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 20.

[11] Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1–12 (WORDsearch, 2008), 72.

[12] Matt Smethurst, Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/blessed-are-those-who-mourn accessed 08/21/2022

 

/ / , , / 0

The Sermon of the Kingdom

matthew-the-kingdom-of-heaven

The Sermon of the Kingdom

Matthew 5:1-12

In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we come today to Matthew 5. We come today to what Augustine first called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). It is perhaps the greatest sermon ever delivered on earth fact and it comes from the lips of the greatest Preacher who ever preached, Jesus Christ. One commentator calls the Sermon on the Mount, the supreme jewel in the crown of Jesus’ teaching.[1] It is the first of five major discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. All five are surrounded by blocks of narrative and all five end with the same formula (Matt. 7:28–29; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1).[2]

Matthew places this sermon near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. As we saw in Matthew 4, immediately after His baptism and temptation Jesus began to announce the good news that the kingdom of God, long promised in the Old Testament, was now on the threshold. He Himself had come to inaugurate it preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). Matthew records that “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom …” (Matt. 4:23). The Sermon on the Mount is the sermon of the kingdom preached by the King to those who would be citizens of His kingdom. It portrays the repentance and the righteousness which belong to the kingdom. John Stott comments, “it describes what human life and human community look like when they come under the gracious rule of God.”[3]

John Stott has given a helpful overview of the Sermon, demonstrating that it covers all of life. [4]

a. Kingdom character (Matt. 5:3–12)

The beatitudes emphasize eight principal marks of Christian character and conduct, especially in relation to God and to men, and the divine blessing which rests on those who exhibit these marks.

b. Kingdom influence (Matt. 5:13–16)

Jesus uses the metaphors of salt and light to indicate the influence for good that Christians will exert in the world if (and only if) they maintain their distinctive character as portrayed in the beatitudes.

c. Kingdom righteousness (Matt. 5:17–48)

What is true righteousness? What is the attitude of the Kingdom citizen to the moral law of God? Jesus reaffirmed the authority of Old Testament Scripture and drew out the full and exacting implications of God’s moral law and true righteousness. The key verses in this section are Matthew 5:20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”; and Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

d. Kingdom piety (Matt. 6:1–18)

Here, the key verse is Matthew 6:8, “Therefore do not be like them…” In their ‘piety.’ or religious devotion, citizens of the Kingdom must not resemble either the hypocritical religion of the Pharisees or the empty ritualism of pagans. So Jesus calls for genuine devotion in giving, prayer, and fasting.

e. Kingdom ambition (Matt. 6:19–34)

Here, Christ deals with our attitude to material wealth and possessions. The key verse is Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

f. Kingdom relationships (7:1–20)

Christ changes all our relationships, so He instructs us in how to relate to both fellow believers and those who are unbelieving. Perhaps the key verse here is the “golden rule” of Matthew 7:12, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

g. Kingdom commitment (7:21–27)

What is your relationship Jesus the King? It is not enough either to call Jesus ‘Lord’ (Matt. 7:21–23) or to just listen to His teaching (Matt. 7:24–27). The basic question is whether we mean what we say and do what we hear. On this commitment hangs our eternal destiny.

So you can clearly see that this is a very penetrating sermon, exposing man’s counterfeit righteousness and extolling the true righteousness of those who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, those who are true disciples of Jesus.

1. The blessedness of the disciple [5]

Matthew 4 clearly demonstrated that Jesus’ authority as a teacher was well established. He was preaching and teaching all over Galilee. Great crowds were following Him. And it was in this context that Matthew tells us; “And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them . . .” (Matthew 5:1-2).

Matthew tells the setting of this sermon by writing that Jesus, “went up on a mountain.” (Matt. 5:1). Mountains are very important in this Gospel. In Matthew 4 there was the mountain of temptation (Matt. 4:8). Here is the mountain of the Sermon. In Matthew 17 there is the mountain of transfiguration (Matt. 17:1). And finally the mountain of the great commission (Matt. 28:16). These are all peaks in Matthew’s emphasis. Many see a parallel of this sermon on the Mount to Mount Sinai. Moses went up Mount Sinai to get the law from God to give it to the people of Israel. And now Moses’ great successor ascends a mountain to receive from his Father and transmit to His disciples the law of the kingdom. We have a new law for a new people given on a new mountain by a new Moses.[6]

Jesus saw the multitudes but did you notice who it was that He specifically spoke to? Jesus saw the crowds, but went up to the mountain—most likely one that overlooked the Sea of Galilee—and sat down. He didn’t go to the multitudes to speak these words. He withdrew from the crowds that were following after Him; and if anyone wanted to hear what He had to say, they had to go to Him to hear it. We’re told that, when He was seated, His disciples came; and He specifically spoke to them.

This is the first time we encounter the word “disciple” in the New Testament. A disciple is a learner, one who is taught by his master. Lots of people followed Jesus to be healed and amazed by His miracles, but only those who were His disciples came to be taught by Him. You could tell who was just a part of the multitude and who was truly a disciple; because His disciples, after witnessing His power to heal, came to Him to be taught.

There’s an important principle in this. The Sermon on the Mount was not meant for the crowd at large. It is not to be taken and applied to all societies in the world. It was meant for a very specific audience, Jesus’ disciples, His followers, those who came to Him to be taught of Him.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most misunderstood messages that Jesus ever gave. Some say it is God’s plan of salvation, that if we ever hope to go to heaven we must obey these rules. Another calls it a “charter for world peace” and begs the nations of the earth to accept it. Still, others tell us that the Sermon on the Mount cannot apply to us today, but that it will apply at some future time, perhaps after Christ returns during the millennial kingdom.[7]

But the context shows that it is meant for disciples of Jesus. John Stott writes,

Only a belief in the necessity and the possibility of a new birth can keep us from reading the Sermon on the Mount with either foolish optimism or hopeless despair. Jesus spoke the Sermon to those who were already his disciples and thereby also the citizens of God’s kingdom and the children of God’s family. The high standards he set are appropriate only to such. We do not, indeed could not, achieve this privileged status by attaining Christ’s standards. Rather by attaining his standards, or at least approximating to them, we give evidence of what by God’s free grace and gift we already are.[8]

Jesus begins His sermon with what we call the Beatitudes. The word “beatitude” is related to the Latin beatus, which means “blessed.”[9] This is the word that begins each of the eight affirmations that Jesus makes in Matthew 5:3-10. MacArthur points out that the Greek word is makarios and it’s a familiar word, an adjective meaning “happy.”[10] The Jerusalem Bible translates it accordingly: “How happy are the poor in spirit . . . Happy are the gentle . . . Happy are those who mourn . . .” It describes the happy, blissful condition of the soul, the blessed, contented condition of the soul.

These eight beatitudes give us nothing less than a summary of the greatest themes of the message of the gospel. They present truth so profound and so life-changing, that they could not have been spoken by anyone else but God in human flesh.

Jesus is speaking of a happiness that is the believer’s experience even when during very unhappy circumstances, a happiness we have even in such things as mourning, or hungering and thirsting, or being persecuted unfairly. This is a happiness that does not have its source in any human effort or earthly circumstance whatsoever.

This is a transcendent kind of happiness – a happiness above circumstances. It has to do with “being” something – being a privileged recipient of God’s gracious favor and unmerited blessing. This is why we translate it “blessed”. When we say that someone is “blessed”, we are speaking of a derivative happiness. We mean that they are the recipients of something given to them by God. We cannot be happy, or blessed in this sense, without being a recipient of God’s gracious favor.

True happiness, true blessedness, is a gift of God’s grace. It’s a happiness that can never be affected by the things of this world. It’s the settled, inner satisfaction and bliss that comes to those who are in God’s favor through Jesus Christ. And that’s the “blessedness” that is set before us over and over and over in these words from our Savior. Jesus offers it to His disciples free of charge.

The focus of the Beatitudes is not on “doing”. It doesn’t so much define a set of actions to us as much as describe a kind of character. As someone has pointed out, this isn’t the “Do-attitudes”; it’s the “Be-attitudes.” It’s a description of what it looks like to “be” a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is the portrait of someone in whom Christ dwells. The Sermon on The Mount was never meant to be a list of commands that we follow in our own strength. Simply put, we will never be able to “do” the things in the Sermon on the Mount, if we will not first “be” the things in The Beatitudes.

So before we look at The Beatitudes, may I ask you: Are you a “disciple” of Jesus? Are you one of His “followers”; and do you set yourself apart from everything else in this world in order to be taught by Him? Have you taken the first step? Have you stepped apart from the crowd in order to call Him your Lord and Master? Are you prepared to leave all and follow Him? Are you truly a “disciple” of Jesus?

Listen to the teaching of King Jesus:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:3-12).

Here, then, are the foundational principles of The Sermon on The Mount. Here’s the summary description of the man or woman in whom Jesus Christ dwells. Here is the pathway to true blessedness. Here is the portrait of the disciple of Christ.

But, how does someone come to that state of “blessedness”? We could even put it this way: How does someone enter into the state of “being” a disciple – and thus being blessed? That leads us, next, to consider another wonderful aspect of the Beatitudes. There’s a logical order to them; and this order shows us . . .

2. The progress of the disciple.

The Beatitudes were not given to us by the Savior as a random set of assertions. They are interrelated to and build upon one another. They show us how someone progresses in the state of being a disciple of Jesus.

Consider the first three Beatitudes. They deal with that aspect in the progress of a disciple in which he or she first comes to a deep realization of his or her need for God’s grace. The first Beatitude says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” “Poor” literally means destitute and reduced to being a beggar. But it isn’t speaking of those who are poor “financially”. It is “poor in spirit,” those who have come to terms with the fact that they are poor “spiritually”—those who realize that they have nothing of their own to commend themselves to God, no spiritual worth or virtue in and of themselves. They are spiritually bankrupt before a holy God and are sinners worthy only of His condemnation and wrath. They are “poor in spirit”.

And then, as the second Beatitude teaches us, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” And again, this isn’t talking about merely “mourning” in and of itself. Rather, this is a deep inner mourning in the soul. Those who have a sense of their own spiritual poverty before a holy God also recognize the depth of their own sin. They see themselves as they truly are, and they grieve and sorrow over the sin that is in them.

In the third Beatitude, Jesus teaches us, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth“; and this needs to be understood in the context of the things that proceeded it. When a man or woman comes to realize the abject poverty of their own soul before God, and then comes to be broken-hearted and deeply sorry for the sin in their lives, how then should they come to God? Not in pride or self-confidence, but as meek and humble beggars – demanding nothing as their right, but only pleading for His mercy.

Can you see how these first three Beatitudes describe how someone begins the journey of becoming a disciple of Christ? They show the progress of the disciple of Jesus Christ through the deep sense of need for God’s grace and mercy?

The fourth Beatitude describes the desperately needy man or woman in the state of transition; where they cry out to God for righteousness by grace, and where God, by grace, declares them righteous. What a great and hopeful assertion it is! It’s one of the most wonderful promises of grace in all the Bible! Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

That brings us to the remaining four Beatitudes. They all speak of the blessed state of the man or woman who has come to God in the depth of their need for His grace, and who have – by God’s grace – been pardoned and declared “righteous” through Jesus Christ. Such a person is transformed from the inside out. They live a new kind of life in God’s grace, a life of mercy, purity, peacemaking, a life that is so counter-cultural that it brings persecution for righteousness.

The first step in entering the kingdom, the first step to happiness, is being poor in spirit, realizing your spiritual poverty. The second one is mourning over it. The third one is humbly falling down before the glory of God in your condition. The fourth one is then pleading for a righteousness which you don’t have and hunger for. That begins then to manifest itself in an attitude of mercy toward others, a pursuit of purity and peacemaking in your own life, and creates hostility in the world. That’s the flow of the Beatitudes.[11]

So you see; the Beatitudes are not just a random group of assertions of blessedness. They describe the blessedness of the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ – from beginning to end. It describes a life begun in neediness, brokenness and repentance; and then goes on to describe that same life justified and transformed by the redeeming grace of God through Christ.

Because this is true, this means that none of the individual Beatitudes should be seen as independent of the others. They are not individual “blessings” that we can take out of context and make to stand on their own however we wish. They all go together and are interrelated to one another in such a way as to form a single progression. The Beatitudes are meant to be understood as eight different aspects of the portrait one kind of person. They together describe what each disciple of Jesus Christ is to be like.

That naturally leads us to a third thing that the Beatitudes show us . . .

3. The Master of the disciple.

The kind of life being described in The Beatitudes is not one that you or I could ever manufacture in our own power. It is, through and through, a life that can only be lived by Jesus Christ Himself dwelling in us.

As we study the Sermon on the Mount, you’ll find that it presents us with a humanly impossible standard to live by. Only a prideful and arrogant fool would think that he or she could live out the principles of The Sermon on The Mount.

No; only Jesus can live such a life. And if we are to live it, it will only be because He lives it through us. The Beatitudes is the portrait of a man or woman in whom Christ dwells. It’s the portrait of someone who abides in Christ. More than that, the Beatitudes is a portrait of Christ Himself. Only He can live the life through us that is described in these eight assertions. This means that abiding in Him and He in us is the only way to true blessedness.

And that thought brings us to the Lord’s Table. It is here that we are reminded that we are one with Christ in His life, death, and resurrection. In just as real a way as the bread and fruit of the vine go into our bodies, Christ has come to dwell in us by faith.

 

[1] Michael Green, The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 88.

[2] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 122.

[3] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 18.

[4] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 24–26.

[5] Greg Allen, The Disciple’s Portrait, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2004/053004.htm#f1. I adapted Allen’s outline and used several of his points in developing this sermon.

[6] Michael Green, The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 89.

[7] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 20–21.

[8] John R. W. Stott and John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 29.

[9] David Turner and Darrell L. Bock, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 11: Matthew and Mark (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005), 75.

[10] John MacArthur, The Only Way to Happiness, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-188/the-only-way-to-happiness accessed 06/06/2022

[11] John MacArthur, The Only Way to Happiness: Be Poor in Spirit, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-189/the-only-way-to-happiness-be-poor-in-spirit accessed 06/06/2022

/ / , , / 0