Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
He said,
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 the children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Amen, and to God be the glory for his word.
And here's Michael to preach on those.
Thanks, Brian.
Good morning, church.
Isn't it wonderful to be together, to sing together, to pray together and to come around
God's word together on this fine day as the people of God.
And the singing this morning was beautiful and it's lovely to hear the saints of God
singing to our risen Lord Jesus.
This morning we are going to continue our series in the book of Matthew.
These are God's words that we are reading this morning.
So before we look into these wondrous things, let us speak to the author together.
Would you join me in prayer?
Father, we thank you that these are indeed your words given to us to your church through
the Lord Jesus.
We ask by your spirit that these words would not remain in our heads only, but by your
spirit we would be, you would enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so to speak, and that
we would be transformed by your truth.
We ask for this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Lately, Hayley and I have been really enjoying a series of whodunnits on Netflix, whodunnit
mysteries on Netflix written by American author Harlan Coban.
And we're really enjoying them because Harlan is a great storyteller.
And I say that because not only are his characters well developed and have fantastic deep backstories
to keep you guessing, but he leaves us absolutely confuddled with all that is going on right
up until the very end, which makes the revealed mystery all that much more satisfying.
Now as someone who prides themselves on figuring out who did it within the first couple of
episodes and then ruining it for my wife, yes, I was that guy that called out the ending
to the sixth sense in the cinemas.
Harlan's writing really has us captivated.
Now why we love these shows so much is because there are clues given all throughout the episodes,
which you have to remember because they're all leading you to the big picture.
They're all leading you to this big picture that will be revealed in the end, which means
you really have to pay attention to everything that is said and even alluded to by the characters.
Because without picking up the clues that they give, the answer to the mystery remains
in the dark and the big picture will be totally missed, even when it's explained.
Now I mention all of this because the book of Matthew is doing a very similar thing,
similar in the way that Matthew is not giving, but putting together all the clues that were
given in the Old Testament about Jesus as to explain to everyone who Jesus is and what
he had come to do.
And I say this because for the Jews in the old dispensation of things, God gave them
clues as to what he was going to do through the coming Messiah and his kingdom.
Yet Matthew argues, because of Jesus and his ministry, the people of God no longer needed
to solve the mystery.
No the clues all pointed to the one person and the mystery was revealed in the life,
the death and the resurrection of Jesus.
Just as the famous theologian Augustine once said, in the old concealed but in the new
revealed.
That's what Matthew is doing in his gospel for everyone.
He's showing us the big picture and revealing the mystery which is Christ by putting together
all the clues from the Hebrew scriptures to show us why Jesus was indeed the long awaited
Messiah that God told his people about.
We've seen this all through the weeks haven't we?
There's been lots and lots of clues that have found their answer in the life and the ministry
of Jesus thus far.
For example, God said that he would always have a son of David on the throne, which meant
for the Messiah to be legitimate, he had to come from the family of David.
Jesus was from that line, hence why Matthew started his whole book off with a genealogy.
God said that he would come to be with his people in the Emmanuel prophecy, hence why
Matthew included the birth narrative of Jesus, recording that he was conceived by the Holy
Spirit and born to the Virgin Mary.
God said that the shepherd of his people would be born in Bethlehem, Jesus was.
God said in Isaiah 7 that he would bring his kingdom into this dark, dark world and be
a light and set people free, which as we saw a few weeks ago was the exact thing that Jesus
was doing as he went about ministering in Israel.
Matthew's given all throughout the Hebrew scriptures as to who Jesus would be and what
he would do.
And Matthew, every step of the way showing us that we don't have to wonder anymore as
to how God would fulfill these things, because as Matthew has shown us, they were fulfilled
by the Jesus that he followed.
This morning, we're going to see that Matthew is going to put together some other clues
as to who this Jesus is and why we must follow him.
Because God promised to send into this world a prophet that would be that much greater
than Moses.
And as we've seen this morning, Matthew reveals how that mysterious clue also came to be seen
in Jesus' ministry.
It'll be helpful if you have your Bibles in front of you.
So let's dive right in.
If you do have your Bibles, read with me verses 1 and 2.
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside, he sat down and his disciples
came to him and he began to teach them.
Now as we've seen through the weeks, Matthew never minces his words.
No, he's very careful with the words he uses because we're quite literally meant to take
everything that he says as gospel.
So with that said, I want you to take notice of a couple of things that's happening here.
First, this section of scripture from chapter 5 through to chapter 7 is about teaching.
And as we'll see over the next few weeks, as we spend time in these chapters, we're
actually going to look at one big sermon given by Jesus, not just to his disciples but to
everyone that came to see him teach.
So before we start to get into any of that, the thing that I want us to have a think about
right now is the context of where Jesus taught his disciples.
And we'll notice it here in verse 1.
He taught on a mountainside, hence the very creative name, the Sermon on the Mount.
Now why a mountainside?
Why might that be important for us to not just skip over but take notice of?
Let me explain.
You see, when Israel was rescued from Egypt, God drew them out of that nation and saved
them with a purpose in mind.
And that was for them to be a holy nation.
We're told in Exodus 3 that God said to Moses, I've come down to rescue Israel from the power
of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.
He goes on to say, I will be with you, Moses, and this is your sign that I am the one who
has sent you.
When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.
We then read on Exodus 19 verses 1 to 6.
Only two months after the Israelites left Egypt, they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai.
After breaking camp at Raphidium, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and set up camp
there at the base of Mount Sinai.
Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God.
The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, give these instructions to the family
of Jacob.
Announce to the descendants of Israel, you have seen what I have done to the Egyptians.
You know how I carried you out on eagle's wings to myself.
Now if you obey me and keep my covenant, you'll be my own special treasure from among all
the peoples of the earth.
All the earth belongs to me, but you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.
I want you to hear what's being said here to Moses.
God said to him, he said to Moses to come to this mountain and that through him he would
give instructions and commands to the people of Israel.
And if they obeyed what God said to them, if they did what Yahweh told them, then they
would be different from all the people on the earth.
In fact, that's exactly what holy means.
Holy means separated.
And that's what God was doing with his people through Moses.
He was instructing and giving them the covenant of the kingdom so that they would be separated
from all the nations of the world and be a light in this dark, dark world.
However, with all that said, it's a really interesting moment towards the end of the
ministry of Moses.
He's leading the people of God to Canaan.
And I say it's interesting because Moses knew from the get-go that his ministry was a shadow
of things to come and that something much, much greater was on the horizon.
In a literal sense, his ministry pointed beyond himself and to another.
Listen to how Moses explains this to the congregation in Deuteronomy 15.
We read Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among
your fellow Israelites.
You must listen to him.
For this is what you yourselves requested of the Lord your God when you were assembled
at Mount Sinai.
You said don't let us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this blazing fire
for we will die.
Then the Lord said to me what they have said is right.
I'll raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites.
I'll put my words in his mouth.
He'll tell people everything that I command him and I will personally deal with anyone
who will not listen to the message that the prophet proclaims on my behalf.
This is incredible.
Moses arguably one of the most famous prophets that the ancient world had ever known knew
that he was only a shadow of what was to come.
And like Moses who was used by God to rescue Yahweh's people from bondage to slavery and
then give his law to them at Mount Sinai there would be another that would come with the
words of God blazing in his heart.
None of this would have been lost on Matthew's original Jewish audience that knew the Hebrew
scriptures well.
I mean it's all pointing to one thing right.
This picture of Jesus who went around freeing people from bondage and oppression now with
his people on this mountain giving them commands and revealing God's will to them so they would
be unlike the world around them.
And as he will go on to call them in verse 14 of our chapter they were to be the light.
There's some pretty big imagery to help us understand who Jesus is and what he had come
to do.
Now I just want to say something before we start looking at these next verses and that's
what Jesus is not doing.
And we need to be clear about this.
Jesus is not giving a new law in any sense but an understanding, a new understanding and
outworking of the law.
That's something that we're going to see clearly through the weeks as we go through this sermon.
It's the same law of God that has a new understanding.
New Testament scholar Grant Osborne says it like this.
The one superior to Moses had begun his messianic ministry.
Moreover, the Jewish people expected the Messiah to bring the final Torah.
So this sermon is in a sense the Torah of the Messiah in which Jesus explained the law
to the New Kingdom community.
All that to say, Israel's Messiah, a prophet like Moses, had come to explain the heart
of God's law to the crowds and was establishing the kingdom of heaven in this world.
And clues were given in the Hebrew scriptures that this would happen.
Which Matthew has beautifully brought together here in these first two verses of our passage
this morning to show us that this Jesus was more than a randomly good teacher sat there
on a random mountainside.
The imagery that has been painted for us here is striking.
The one greater than Moses had arrived to usher in the kingdom of heaven and to give
us God's word.
I want to pause here for a moment brothers and sisters and I want to say that when we
approach the word of God, we're not just coming to a book to learn some stuff about history
or to get some good advice in how to order our lives.
The words that we're reading, that we're hearing are the very words of God that have been given
to us for our instruction.
That's the way we're meant to approach the word of God.
It's as God speaking to us.
So with that said, to not listen to his word is to ultimately not listen to the one who
gave it, to twist his word is to ultimately twist the words of God himself.
That's what the Bible is, it's the words of God breathed out by God written down for the
world to not just hear but obey.
And so as we approach what Jesus has said to his original audience, because of the very
nature of who was saying these things, we mustn't just relegate all of this to the past
or a historical event.
Now all of this is being said to us this morning.
And like the disciples here in our passage, we too must pay careful attention to what
we hear so that we too might enter into the kingdom of heaven and that we might shine
the light of Jesus more and more in this darkened world.
So what does Jesus want us to know?
Well the first thing that I want to say is there's some general observations to make
about the next few verses before we look at each beatitude individually.
Beatitude, it's an interesting word.
That's the first thing that I want to comment on.
Beatitudes, as this text has been classically named, essentially means blessed.
So Jesus is saying that we are blessed if we do these things that he's telling us to
do.
Just a few weeks ago I actually heard a sermon on this very passage and the person explaining
it used a translation of the Bible that rendered blessed as happy.
Now I mention this because there is a danger in reducing what Jesus is talking about here
to an emotional standard, to an emotional thing.
Though in saying that to be blessed will bring ultimate joy and that's because to be blessed
in a biblical sense means to be approved or find approval from God himself.
All that to say, whoever seeks to please God seeks to do what he demands of us here and
now no matter if it feels good or not.
But that's the thing that we're going to see.
What God demands of us might seem hard at times but ultimately he meets those who seek
to obey him with so much more than the world could ever define as happiness.
No, we will be blessed now and find joy ultimately because we are going to be met with the very
kingdom of heaven itself.
So with that said, it's no wonder Jesus starts where he starts.
He starts by saying get rid of the pride that keeps you from entering the kingdom of heaven.
We see it in verse 3.
Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Now it's important to note that the kingdom of heaven is talked about in the present tense
here which means that the promise of entering it is present, not just future though it is
yet to be fully realised which means that salvation is something that comes to those
who obey God now and will be seen in its fullness later.
How do we enter the kingdom of heaven one wonders?
Well it's as Jesus says here, it's by being poor in spirit.
Now some have argued through the years that this is talking about living in such a lowly
state that you end up having to rely on God for absolutely everything.
Now this is certainly thinking in the right direction but notice it's not physically being
poor that Jesus has in view here.
We read it in the text, poor in spirit which is to say one has come to the end of themselves
that they no longer look to anything in and of themselves but to God alone for spiritual
rescue.
American, oh he's not American, Canadian theologian D.A. Carson puts it like this and I'm not
going to do the Canadian accent job.
To be poor in spirit is to have the personal acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy.
It's the conscious confession of being unworthy before God as such it is the deepest form
of repentance.
In other words Jesus is saying from the get go, if you don't come to that place where
you acknowledge your total need for God and turn to him out of that spiritual distress
then there is no way that you will ever enter the kingdom of heaven because your pride keeps
you from coming.
This is closely tied to verse 4.
Jesus says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
I say it's closely tied because as we come to the realisation that there is nothing in
and of ourselves that will cause God to justify us there should be a sense of grief over personal
sin.
Now this isn't to say that we the church should be like a stable full of horses walking around
with long faces all the time but it is to say that mourning over our sin should be part
of the disciples experience because at the end of the day dear ones we've broken God's
law we've grieved his spirit and we've hurt others but notice this that's not where we're
meant to stay.
Now it's as Jesus says here those who mourn will be comforted which is in something called
the passive tense which means we won't find comfort in making it up to God in our own
efforts but be comforted by another who does that work towards us and that indeed comes
by looking to another who never broke God's law who never grieved the Holy Spirit and
loved others even giving his very life for them.
It's as Matthew has told us in chapter 1 21 the Messiah was given the name Jesus because
he is the one who will save his people from their sin.
Church it's only in the gospel that we will only ever find the comfort that we are looking
for as we mourn over our lawless deeds because our sins debt has been paid by another in
our place and that will be fully recognized at the consummation of the kingdom and all
of that can only be accepted if one comes to God and that's what ties poor in spirit
mourning and meekness altogether verse 5.
Mourning our poor spirit has to do with a self assessment before the purity of God yet
meekness as it's talked about here in verse 5 has to do with what one will do in relationship
to God.
That's what Jesus is doing here with the first three Beatitudes.
He's saying as we come to a realization of who we are in light of God we should find
ourselves spiritually bankrupt and thus rid ourselves of any notions of saving ourselves
so that we might turn and desire God to redeem and rescue that which has gone terribly wrong.
In other words it's as we look to God it's as we look to him and his kingdom for his
comfort and quit looking inwards to ourselves that any notion of self justification and
self kingdom building will be smashed.
Now the answer isn't to dig our heels in and try harder.
The answer is to see ourselves for what we are and come humbly to God.
It's only the genuinely meek person that will be content in this world because their ego
won't be so inflated that they think they deserve more and more.
Even the promise of the coming kingdom and inheritance which is promised for all God's
people will cause us to quit seeking the things of this world and its so called glories.
Jesus goes on verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they
will be filled.
Which is to say that those who truly turn to God don't want things just to be a little
bit better here and there or to follow the commands of God as kind of an app download,
an optional extra to the Christian life when they feel like it.
Jesus is blatantly obvious.
He's saying that those who turn to God desire his ways in such a way that it is as important
to them as that which keeps them alive.
A lot can be said here on exactly what Jesus is talking about.
But I do think it's closely connected with how Jesus will show us how to pray later on
in Matthew 6 where he says pray to our Father that his kingdom come and his will be done
on this earth as it is in heaven.
Which is another way of saying God have your order, have your way not just in my life but
in the world around us.
I don't know how many of you pray like that but that's certainly something that God answers
with a yes every time we pray to him like that.
And we will see the ultimate yes and amen in the coming kingdom.
Now as I just said when we pray for God's kingdom to come we're praying for God to have
his order, his way in us so that we might be a reflection of his light in this dark
world.
That's so interesting what he's doing here.
It's so interesting what Jesus is doing in the Beatitudes.
I want you to notice this.
He speaks about seeing ourselves in light of God and then comforting the disciples that
in our turning to God we will be met with his complete healing.
But there's also a sense of how we are to treat others throughout the Beatitudes as
well.
But that is definitely going on.
Meekness towards God, yes but towards others, certainly.
Mourn for our own sin, indeed.
But mourn for the sin of others, absolutely.
All this to say Godly character isn't meant to remain under the so-called bowl as we will
see next week.
Verse 15, we're not meant to put all of this and hide it all.
No that light of the transformed life is meant to shine out towards others as well.
Hence when people cause us harm, either physically, mentally, emotionally, and they don't deserve
our sympathy, Jesus says the one who is blessed will they'll show mercy, verse 7, because
they know that they have been shown such incredible mercy in their helplessness.
Not just now but notice it, verse 7, a mercy that will echo on into all eternity.
Now for some of us here this morning, this seems like an impossible standard.
An impossible standard, right?
That we are to show mercy towards other people who have done wretched things in this world
and even maybe to ourselves.
And admittedly forgiving others can seem pretty impossible.
But this is why where Jesus takes it next is incredible.
Because again, he gets us to look back at ourselves and he says you're blessed if you're
pure in heart, verse 8.
Hey that's great, that's great.
Because we might self-assess and think to ourselves, yeah I'm a pretty good guy, I deserve
God's blessing, I deserve his love.
But as soon as the law comes into play, it asks awkward questions of us.
Have I ever stolen anything?
Have I ever looked upon a woman with lust?
Have I ever coveted another person's things?
And as soon as we stand in the light of the law that we quickly see that we don't deserve
God's blessing in any sense.
No we deserve his justice because we're all lawbreakers.
None of us can say that we're pure in heart.
One of us in this room, nor in the history of the world can anyone say that they have
not broken God's law, that they're pure in heart and hence don't deserve this blessing.
Well no, we deserve justice.
Hence in God's mercy, he saves us and makes peace with us through the cross.
And it's as we look to Jesus in our place who is the pure in heart that we will indeed
be able to show mercy to others and see God one day in his kingdom as it's promised to
us here.
But I want to go back to that word peace because it's such an incredibly important word in
the Jewish world.
Because to have peace means to have good and right relationship with God.
And as we see in Matthew's gospel, that's what God will achieve through the death of
Christ.
He will make peace with his people.
But notice this, because there was no peace between God and humanity because we are lawbreakers,
this isn't peacekeeping, this is peacemaking.
God became the ultimate peacemaker towards us and Jesus calls his disciples here in verse
nine to do the very same thing.
We are to be peacemakers.
How?
Well there's a number of places that I could take this this morning but I'm aware of time.
But this has been said already so we'll focus on one thing.
In God's mercy he saved us and made peace with us through the cross and we as the disciples
of Jesus are called to spread that peacemaking message with others.
That's fundamentally what we are as Christians.
We are a people who have been transformed by the gospel and then out of that incredible
knowledge and display of mercy we are there then go and tell others of this transforming, peacemaking
good news.
This news isn't just for us, it's for the world to hear.
It's for all peoples.
And brothers and sisters, Jesus gives us heads up that not everyone is going to be happy
and falling over themselves to pat you on the back when you go and tell them what you've
experienced in your own life or what you're hoping that they can experience in their life
as well.
Not everyone is going to be excited when you tell them that they've broken God's law, that
they deserve his justice but in his wonderful and awesome mercy is made a way for you and
me to have peace with him through the cross.
Everyone is going to be excited about that news.
Jesus knew it.
These are God's words to us this morning.
He says verses 10 to 12, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Again present tense for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me.
Rejoice, be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.
As we bring this to a close this morning, there is no one in this world that can justify
themselves before God.
That's why God through Moses gave the law in the first place.
It was to reveal that no one stands guiltless before our creator, no matter who you are.
That is why death has come to be part of the human experience because death is the result
of sin.
And we know that the law was given not to justify but to point us to another, one who
would be greater than Moses.
And that's interesting in light of what we've seen this morning.
We in and out of ourselves cannot fulfill God's standards.
We've never been able to.
And that's what we've seen this morning again in just the opening verses of Jesus' teaching.
Just because God's standards are perfect and for us to enter that perfect kingdom, we must
come to him and acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy, emptying ourselves of our self-righteousness,
moral self-esteem and personal vainglory.
But this is the good news.
This is the good news.
It's as we abandon our own pride, it's as we empty ourselves of our self-justifying
rhetoric and that we become ready for God's spirit to fill us.
Church, it's as we will see in the coming weeks.
Much of the rest of the sermon on the mount is designed to remove our self-delusions and
foster within us a genuine poverty of spirit as we see God's standards.
And it's from that place of knowing who we are in light of all that God is, that a genuineness
and a depth of repentance will hopefully be birthed in us by the work of the Holy Spirit
in this church.
So that we might abandon our ways, our pride, our self-deceiving standards and turn to God
as revealed in the Bible, which will be met, and this is his promise, will be met with
mercy, forgiveness, love, eternal life in the kingdom of heaven here and now.
But I want to end on this, and we must remember this.
None of this is meant to stay with us.
Yes, we may see these things and yes, we may turn to the one who has shown such incredible
grace and mercy in Jesus, but we must take the gospel to the world because this news
is news and it's meant to be proclaimed.
It's meant to be told to others.
And if you're asking the question, will this be easy, Michael?
No, it won't.
It won't be easy.
Some will slander you, as we heard this morning, some will insult you, persecute you, falsely
say all kinds of evil about you and the rest of us disciples of Jesus, so that the world
will think we're all crazy, that we're deluded, think that we must be cancelled so that they
can live under the illusion that God doesn't demand justice.
But this is the thing, brothers and sisters.
There's coming a day where the kingdom of heaven will be realised in its fullness.
And those of you who have seen your spiritual bankruptcy and turned to God will be met with
a place in that kingdom where you will be comforted and you will mourn no more, where
you will inherit the new earth, where you will no longer long for righteousness, where
the mercy for all your sin will be on clear display for all eternity.
And whereas the children of God, we will see our God.
These are the promises held out to the children of God this morning.
Great is your reward in heaven, brothers and sisters.
No more clues.
The mystery has been revealed and the gospel proclaims that anyone who calls upon the name
of the Lord will be saved.
These are very real promises that are ours right now, all because of the work of another
in our place.
So as we obey our God, as we seek to do His will on this earth, we will reflect His light
to those around us.
Yes, some of you will be met with incredible persecution if you take this seriously and
feelings of isolation.
The church be encouraged, be encouraged by what lies ahead.
There are people out there who need to hear this message, who are ready to be saved, ready
to hear the gospel and by your obedience in sharing your life and God's truth, they will
be saved.
And in sight of eternity with God, it will be all worth it.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you that these are your words this morning.
And as your church prays, your kingdom come, your will be done on this earth as it is in
heaven.
We know that there is an incredible darkness in this world.
That has always been there that we're becoming more aware of.
Father, please give your beautiful children, your disciples, your loved ones, your children
a courage to take this good news to the world.
Father, we're keenly aware of what may happen to some of us, but we ask that you would use
this congregation, you would use this church for your glory and not ours, for your glory
alone.
May your light shine brightly here at Grace Christian Church.
Use us we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.