Today's scripture reading is in Matthew chapter 5 verse 5 through 7. For context
though I'm gonna go ahead and read from verse 1 of Matthew 5 and then we'll be
studying Matthew 5 through 7. When he saw the crowds he went up on
the mountain and after he sat down his disciples came to him. Then he began to
teach them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is
theirs. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the
humble 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 and 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 the kingdom of heaven
is theirs. You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely
say all kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice because your
reward is great in heaven for that is how they persecuted the prophets who
were before you. This is God's word. So last week we began to explore the
greatest sermon ever preached and it probably would have looked something a
little bit like this. A hilltop, people gathered around and Jesus sits and he
begins to teach. The Sermon on the Mount is the message of Jesus that's recorded
in Matthew 5 through 7. The chapters Matthew 5 through 7 and last week we saw
how Jesus began this message with some startling and unworldly upside-down
words. In fact if you did miss last week make sure that you hop on our website
sacvillage.org and you find where you can actually listen to last week's
message or if you're on Apple, podcasts or Spotify you can catch last week's
message that way. Listen to it in the first installment of the Beatitudes
because there's a lot of background information we covered in that sermon.
This one begins with blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven is
theirs and these words began the section of the Sermon on the Mount that we know
as the Beatitudes. If you were there you'll recall how we talked about the
meaning behind blessed. It's a word that's loaded with both baggage and
packed with meaning. A word we are inclined to take that we are inclined to
take it to mean that God bestows a specially appointed blessing on those
who make it their business to do the Beatitudes. That the Beatitudes are a
sort of new law that we have to be strictly obeyed, something we must do but
that's not what's in mind when we read the Beatitudes at all or when we see the
word blessed. Instead what is in mind is the idea of the ideal. It is an
exclamation or an announcement of what life according to God's design looks
like. It's no list at all. It's not a list of do's and don'ts but a
description of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. It is not what you
must do in order to become a citizen of the kingdom of God. No it is what the new
life in Christ produces in the citizens of the kingdom. It is what the kingship
of Jesus brings to or bestows on the citizens of the kingdom. Think about a
plant for a moment. I'm sure some of you have tried your hand at gardening. I
know Lanny has a beautiful garden in his backyard. I'd love to see that that
garden there but we've all tried probably at some time or another and
most of us have probably killed a lot of plants right? But think about a plant. Have
you ever had a plant in a garden or you've seen one and you imagine this
plant is lush and green, beautiful, beautiful leaves? None of them are brown
or wilted. The stem and the stalk of the plant looks healthy and strong. We might
say something like, man that plant that plants flourishing right? That plants
flourishing. It is probably getting everything it needs according to design
to look that way. It's getting water, it's getting sun, good soil, maybe some
plant food. With the proper inputs the life of the plant flourishes. The life of
the plant flourishes and a flourishing plant looks like the plant we described.
Green, lush, no wilting, no brown right? Jesus is saying that this is what a
flourishing person looks like. He is poor in spirit, mournful, humble, peacemaker and
so on. These are not the inputs, the must-dos. These are the outputs. The input
is Christ. The input is Christ. The input is the new life in Christ. It is the new
birth by the Spirit. It is the eminent presence of God in our lives that makes
us a new kind of human, each one of us. These are marks of a true Christian or
in other words a disciple of Jesus. A disciple recognizes his or her own
spiritual bankruptcy. They recognize that they they bring nothing to the table
except every reason to be rejected. They understand that even their works of
righteousness, even the good things that they do or their goodness within their
person is corrupt and they're unable to save themselves. They are completely
dependent on grace, on unmerited favor, undeserved favor. And Jesus says the
kingdom of heaven is populated with those kind of people. He then said, blessed
are those who mourn for they will be comforted. True disciples carry around
with them a certain mournfulness. First over the ongoing presence of sin and the
sins, deceit and destructive power in their own lives. They mourn over that. But
second they mourn because they look around at a world in which sin has
caused so much pain, so much sorrow, so much suffering and chaos. They see the
lives of the least among them in society and they are broken over them. They see
the pain of abuse, injustice and oppression, the demeaning and dehumanizing
of the defenseless, the exploitation of the vulnerable, the bloodied faces of the
children who are caught up in wars of greed and hatred. They are crushed by the
disparities that exist even in the richest country like ours. They are torn
and weep for the torn relationships, for divorce, for custody battles, for lies and
slander, for disobedience and fear. They mourn but they mourn with hope that one
day the good Creator will make everything right, will rectify every
injustice and will dry every tear and will judge every unrepentant wrongdoer
and exact vengeance on them. They mourn with hope. The mark of a Christian is one
who mourns with hope. So that's the background for today's text as we move
forward to verse 5 and we look at three of these blessed or we called
the Macorisms in that first sermon. Macorisms, these blessed are for
they's. We're gonna look at three of them. Blessed are the humble for they will
inherit the earth. If it is so, as Jesus says, that the humble are blessed then
what does it mean to be humble? To be humble, which in some versions or
translations of your Bible might be translated meek or gentle in spirit. It's
the same word. Martin Lloyd Jones, a preacher, once said or pointed out that
having a true view of yourself that is expressed in your attitude and your
conduct toward others is what it means to be humble. Having a true view of
yourself that is expressed in your attitudes and conduct toward others is
what it means to be humble. And in this way there is a sort of building that
we've seen in the Beatitudes from poor in spirit to those who mourn to those
who are humble. The poor in spirit who recognizes their spiritual bankruptcy
they're unable to do sufficient good in order to save themselves, right? They
recognize that they are a created thing like all of us and that as a created
thing we're accountable to our Creator God. And that they have to give account
for what they do in this earth. And when they give account for what they do if
they do it according to their own way they will be found lacking. That's poor
in spirit. Well that produces in them this mournfulness over sin and sins
effect first in their own life but in the greater world around them. And having
a poor in spirit, a poor spirit and a mournfulness over sin leads them to
express attitudes and conduct toward others that is not superior or
domineering. It doesn't look down on anyone including those who are most
caught up in a sinful life. Because the blessed one does not think so highly of
themselves. If I am the blessed humble one this means others can say the most
wretched things about me without me needing to mount a defense against them.
Why? Because God will ultimately give the humble the high place they would not
seize for themselves. God will ultimately give them the high place that they would
not seize for themselves. They will inherit the earth. God will supplant the
wicked and make the humble the king of the hill. If you want a more robust
understanding of this idea of what it means to be humble in the kingdom of God
then read all of Psalm 37. All of Psalm 37 but I'll read a little bit from verse
18 through 20. The Lord watches over the blameless all their days and their
inheritance will last forever. They will not be disgraced in times of adversity.
They will be satisfied in days of hunger but the wicked will perish. The Lord's
enemy like the glory of the pastures will fade away. They will fade away like
smoke. Why are the humble blessed? Because they know he fights their battles. He
fights their battles. All is ours in Christ. If you are in Christ all is yours
in Christ. All of it. One preacher put it this way. Self-renunciation is the way
to world domination. Self-renunciation is the way to world domination. Do you feel
it necessary to fight your own battles? Do you feel you have you have to defend
your honor all the time constantly against other people? Do you feel like
you need to establish your position or ascend the hill? John Stott once said
that we much prefer to condemn ourselves rather than allow
others to condemn us. How many of you guys know that's true? We can be
self-deprecating. Oh yeah me yeah I struggle I have this I have that but
whatever you do don't you condemn me. Don't you speak ill of me. Don't you
come against my honor. I've got an honor to defend. The humble don't see it that
way. What do we see in the life of Christ himself? When accused did he
defend himself? Did Jesus defend himself when he was accused? When he was beaten
and whipped did he say you know what forget it guys I'm gonna I'm gonna take
off this earthly robe this body and I'm gonna show you who I really am and call
on the armies of heaven to have you wiped off the face of the earth. Did
Jesus do that? No. 1st Peter chapter 2 of 21 says for you were called to this. Why
were you called to this? Why were you called? Because Christ also suffered for
you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He did not
commit sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted he did
not insult in return. When he suffered he did not threaten but entrusted himself
to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so
that having died to sins we might live for righteousness by his wounds you have
been healed. We could stay a little while longer on this one. Blessed are the humble
we'll move on for now to verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness for they will be filled. The poor in spirit those who mourn the
humble and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. To hunger and thirst
for righteousness is to possess an insatiable appetite for relationship
with God that is unclouded by disobedience. I'm gonna say that one again.
To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to possess an insatiable appetite for
relationship with God that is unclouded by disobedience. This is righteousness that
is both one of personal moral character that's the obedience part but it's also
one that lends itself toward right relationship with God. It's ongoing and
it's unrelenting and not just for yourself. It's not the kind of life lived
so that you might possess something for yourself but it's also for all of
humankind a desire a hunger a thirst that all of humankind around us might
experience that pre-eden or pre-fall Eden where God and humankind walked in
a shalom a peace. It's a hunger and thirst for that as you look at a world
around you and say I want that for you not just for me I want that for all of
you peace with God through Jesus Christ. True righteousness always has a
social dynamic to it it's not just personal it's outward looking too.
The reformer Martin Luther said that the command to the disciple to hunger and
thirst for righteousness is not a command to crawl into a corner or go out
to a desert and live a hermit life of piety to go work on yourself. The call to
hunger and thirst for righteousness is instead to run out from those hiding
places into the world with all your might and all your vigor and to offer
fully your hands and your feet and your whole body and to wager everything you
have and can do to see righteousness established on this earth. A disciple is
one with a hunger and a thirst for righteousness that can never be curbed
or stopped one that looks for nothing and cares for nothing except the
accomplishment and maintenance of what is right. If you cannot make the entire
world seek and obey God at least do all you can. If you cannot make the entire
world to seek and obey God at least do everything you can in that direction. But
Jesus said to seek first what? Kingdom and his righteousness and all these
other concerns will be added taken care of considered by God but you seek first
his kingdom his righteousness that his righteousness and I reign on this earth.
Jesus once prayed for his disciples and he prayed that they would be one with
the Father as Jesus is one with the Father and that with the Father and
Christ they might be one in him so that the world would know that they are Jesus
his disciples. Right relationship righteousness be one with God so that
the world might know you are his disciples. A disciple has this insatiable
appetite for God for personal righteousness for right relationship with
God and for social righteousness that all the world would be filled with the
knowledge of God all of it. So why are they blessed? Why are the hungering and
the thirsting for righteous? Why are they blessed? Because they will be filled. They
will see it you will see it they have a promise that this hunger and thirst will
absolutely positively be satisfied a hundred percent filled. I don't know if
how many of you guys make your way over to Las Vegas much and do some poker I
don't but I was waiting to see if anyone's hand shot up you know no
judgment but you know I've heard over at the poker tables that you can go all in
right all in all your money everything in and that's a pretty risky move unless
you got some pretty good cards I imagine right. The one who hungers and thirsts
for righteousness can go all in for it and it's not risky at all no risk
whatsoever. You can go all in to hunger and thirst for righteousness and you will
be filled you will be filled all in. If you trust and believe God there's no
risk. You can wager everything in your life to go on this mission to fill the
world with the glory of God and the righteousness of God and it will succeed
it will succeed finally and and fully will succeed. For blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Finally and forever
it will succeed and you can go all in on that mission which leads us to our final
one in verse 7. Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Proverbs
21 13 says the one who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself also
call out and not be answered. The one who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor
will himself also call out and not be answered. Blessed are the merciful for
they will be shown mercy. The flourishing life in the kingdom of God is one marked
by the active showing of mercy. Grace we love grace right we sang about the
amazing grace we love grace we love to sing songs about God's grace and grace
is always about how God dealt with sin and the guilt of sin the stain of sin
and the guilt of sin when we say we're saved by grace we are saying that by the
substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross he substituted for
us for our sins and he took the penalty that was our due us for our sins he took
it upon himself and his righteousness was credited to us this is what grace
looks like grace that is saving our judicial guilt is removed from us by the
work of Jesus on the cross but mercy mercy is different than grace mercy
always deals with pain suffering misery and distress mercy is about the effects
of sin not the fact of sin mercy deals with the pain the misery the distress
that is caused in our life and in our world by the presence of sin mercy is
about alleviating pain and suffering and making the effects less severe on the
one who is hurting the merciful how many of you guys want to be merciful or more
merciful than you already are how many want to grow in mercy to show more a
mercy to others to help others deal with the pain and the misery and the
distress caused by sin in their lives the merciful look for ways to put the
salve or the balm on the wounds they look for ways to bind up the broken
hearts they look for ways to put food and drink in the mouth of the one that
is parched or the stomach that is aching for sustenance the merciful look
for a tear that they can dry through comfort and love the merciful look to
sit with the lonely to ask the name of the homeless man or woman you find on
the streets to hear the story of the young woman seeking out an abortion they
offer relief from sins effects not pardon for the sins they offer relief
and therein is a blessing actually because to show mercy does not mean an
endorsement you can show mercy to anyone it's not an endorsement of their life
because it's not a pardon for their sin it's to relief relieve relieve the
suffering that sin is causing on someone it doesn't mean an endorsement of
behavior it is simply a mark of a disciple to show mercy the good
Samaritan showed mercy our God shows mercy get this he heals he cures he
helps and relieves life right how many of you guys have ever felt the comfort
of the Lord's presence in your life see this is not pardon for sin this is
comfort this is him showing mercy to you to help you to comfort you through
the troubles and sins effect on your life it's not grace that's mercy you
might have a concept of God where all he does and all he cares about is sin and
guilt that's it but in this in-between time before we experience the perfection
of the new heavens in the new earth God is also very much so merciful to us as
we deal with the effects of sin on the image bearers of this earth and not only
is he merciful with us but he calls each one of you if you are a disciple to be
merciful and he will do in you what he calls you to do he will create it in you
someone's going and showing mercy to someone else I guess I wasn't sure if
they're coming for me if I'm talking too loud or something start running back to
the church nothing proves more clearly and more definitively that we are
forgiven and we are made new in Jesus Christ and when we show mercy to the
most unloved unworthy powerless to repay unlike us person when we show mercy we
show that we've received mercy and therefore we want to give it the humble
are merciful the humble are merciful the Beatitudes as we continue our journey
through these back at the church next week the attitudes they help us to know
our identity as citizens of the kingdom of heaven here's your identity if you
are in Christ here's your identity poor in spirit mournful humble hunger and
thirst for righteousness and merciful and here's your promise here's why you
are blessed here's why you are flourishing why because the kingdom of
heaven is yours because you will be comforted because you will inherit the
earth because you will be filled and you yourself will be shown mercy for the
mercy you show to others remember that analogy of the plants that I talked
about before if you are a believer today you say I put my faith and hope in Jesus
Christ but you don't see this life that we're describing at work within you you
don't see it at work within you I'm here to tell you in love something's wrong
something's wrong do not leave this place thinking that you are to accept a
life devoid of these blessings these are yours in Christ this is the new life
this is citizenship in the heaven if you don't see it you have work to do with
the Lord to go to the Lord to ask him if I'm connected to the vine the life of
the vine flows through me and out of me and if I don't see the life of the vine
in me Lord what what what's at work I must grow I want we all need to grow we
all need to grow in our faith in our mercy and our and all of those things as
the life moves in us but if we don't see it if we're void of it then I want you
to be worried I want you to be worried because maybe you have been cut off or
maybe your confession is empty and you never attached in the beginning but
that's okay because here we are today and the Lord gave you another day to be
here today and that's okay because if you want to live that blessed life then
all you need is Christ Christ in you receive him by faith repent of your
sins turn confess receive the life of Christ and begin to see the life grow up
within you in increasing measure poverty of spirit mournfulness the blessed the
blessed characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven all that can change
today you need only the new life that is found in Christ alone King Jesus is our
hope in our salvation people only through repentance and faith can you
come to him but if you do he will bring you into this life that is truly life and
you will inherit the kingdom of heaven