"When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
We welcome you to worship
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my honor and privilege to have you
here with us today. We are especially grateful for those of you who have
been sharing the ministry website, and social media platforms with all of your family and friends.
Your faithfulness and commitment to share God's Word with others
continues to bring about tremendous results. People are responding to
God's Word! This is all so amazing. We ask you to pray that God will
continue to give us boldness to speak the truth in ministry in the face
of adversity in the coming days! As you may have noticed, it's becoming
more and more challenging in the day in which we live.
I
want to let all of you know how grateful I am for all of you. We are so
thankful your prayers and continue to pray for all of you. Prayer is
such a powerful tool, and a mighty weapon against the adversary. And
through your sharing, God continues to bring a number of people to faith
in Jesus Christ. Praise God! May He continue to use you and this
ministry mightily to effect change in even more lives. Let's give God some praise for all He has done!
I recall hearing a story, some years ago, about a young boy and his family, driving home from church one Sunday. The young boy had been very quiet half way home, then he spoke and said "Mom, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I just don’t understand."The mother asked "What is it, maybe I can help." The little boy replied, "Well, the preacher said that God is much bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the world in His hands." The mother replied, "Yes, that true." Then the little boy asked, But mom, then said that when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, God comes to live inside of us. Is that true too?" The mother assured him that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on his face, he then asked "If God is bigger than us and He lives inside of us, wouldn’t He show through?"
This has always been God’s purpose that when He enters into our lives, He would be allowed to "show through," that He would be visible to others in our attitudes and actions. The Holy Spirit is like a spiritual light bulb, it only shines when plugged into God’s power! By the Holy Spirit, Christ has come to live in us that He might live through us to meet the needs of a hurting humanity. Knowing that should cause us to wonder, "Does anyone ever see God showing through me?"
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for reminding us how you have been faithful to fulfill all that you have promised. Thank You for the hope we have in looking forward to the fulfillment of all that you have promised us in Christ, that we would enter into the fullness of it, by obedience and faithfulness. Lord, we pray that the glory of Christ would shine in our lives that others might see Him in and through us. May Your truths rule and reign in our hearts. May we respond to your Word, which has been written that our joy might be full.Open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5. This is probably one of the most famous texts in all of the Bible. I do not believe that its importance can be overstated, its teaching is profound. It is what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher Who ever lived! Even unbelievers were greatly impressed and impacted by the message of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the first recorded sermon of Jesus in the New Testament. The beatitudes are a self-portrait of Jesus Christ. Beginning in verse 3, the word "blessed" in every verse through verse 11. This passage is about fulfillment and satisfaction, and is reserved for those who are partakers of the divine nature of God, through Christ. Even in the midst of this happiness, there is a paradoxical picture of misery. This is a similar sermon to the one recorded in Luke 6, which seems to sum up the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in many ways.
There are nine "blessed"s. The word "blessed" comes from the Greek word "makários," which means happy and occurs in one form or another, some fifty times in the New Testament. We're talking about a condition of inward happiness, which is neither the result of outward influence or external circumstances. A constant state of well-being in which a person finds satisfaction and fulfillment. It is indicative of character to believers. Nowhere in Scripture, it is used to describe those who are not believers. In fact, God uses it to describe Himself, as in Psalm 68:35 says, "O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary. The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people.
Blessed be God!" All those who genuinely belong to God are partakers of His divine nature by His grace granted to us in Christ. Man cannot know true happiness if he is not a partaker of the divine nature of God, which is only available to those who have come to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
In the broadest terms, Jesus is talking about the characteristics of those who belong to God. This comes at a very pivotal moment in redemptive history, as Jesus comes to introduce the new covenant and to provide the sacrifice by His death and resurrection. The New Testament is a book about Jesus Christ and it begins with a blessing connected to the new covenant.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read, to set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for what the Spirit of God is saying to each of us. Matthew 5:1-12. Listen for the voice of our Lord.
"When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive 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 have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Notice, Jesus doesn’t say happy are the wealthy, the famous or the successful. He says happy are the poor in spirit, happy are those who mourn, happy are the meek or humble, happy are the hungry and thirsty, happy are the merciful, happy are the pure in heart, happy are the peacemakers, happy are those who are persecuted, happy are those who are insulted. Jesus was speaking to those who did have ears to hear, and to those who did not. Jesus teaching is about God doing the impossible through those who obey Him, through His Spirit and His grace as He works in us. Notice, He speaks in terms of the present, as well as the future. He is talking about the character of those who are true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the character of those who are in the kingdom of God. This is not the kind of happiness that the world designed. It is the happiness that God offers us in Christ.
Solomon is certainly a classic example, his intelligence was unequaled in the world of men. He was the wisest of all men. He found pleasure in his vast treasure of food, stables, horses, buildings, servants, vineyards, fish ponds, gardens, and, an almost endless string of women. Yet, he found in all of it, emptiness. At the end of his life, he came to the conclusion that true happiness consists not in the abundance of things which a man possesses. Lasting happiness can only be found in God. In Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon said "There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt." Riches don’t bring true happiness. True happiness cannot be found in the ways of the world, it only fuels our pride.
Jesus to present these tremendous truths of the Kingdom of God, which are spiritual in nature. The Sermon on the Mount, runs from chapter 5 through the end of chapter 7, without a single reference being made to a social or political issue. He is talking about an inward happiness that only God can grant. Jesus was counter culture in every sense.
Let's look at verses 1 through 3, "When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
From the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is describing the kind of life style that produces true happiness. In other words, you will never find happiness in this world. The Jews were looking for a political kingdom but Jesus never offered one. There’s no politics in the Sermon on the Mount. All of the ideals that Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount are contrary to human ideas. The lowest of the low by the world’s evaluation, are the most exalted in the Kingdom of God. Jesus describes a very different kind of a kingdom.
Jesus always cared for the multitudes, when He sees them, His heart is broken. He sees their spiritual hunger. Jesus was talking primarily to His disciples, but the multitude could hear what He was saying as well. Everyone needs to hear that God wants to bring to us true blessedness. The world would tell us, blessed are the rich. Jesus tells us blessed are the poor. Even those of us who are in the kingdom of God, our attitudes become shaped by the world. There are a lot of people who by government standards, would be considered the poor in this world, who frankly, wouldn’t qualify for this kind of poor. Books, magazines, television, radio, music, movies, relentlessly sell us the world’s perspective. How we should dress, what we should drive, where we should live, if you just have these things, you'll be happy. Jesus says "This is how you enter the kingdom, and that is where you find true happiness." The Kingdom is a place for God to pour out His blessing.
The first step to entering the kingdom is being poor in spirit, realizing your spiritual poverty. We must be careful that we do not equate poverty with piety. In fact, Proverbs 30 says "Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the food that is my portion. That I not be full and deny You and say, "Who is the Lord? Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God." This passage clearly indicates that both poverty and wealth have their own Achilles heels. It is not money that's the problem, its the sense of self confidence that comes with it.
So, Jesus begins with the most fundamental characteristic of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, from which all other characteristics flow. He’s talking spiritual bankruptcy. When we recognize our own spiritual poverty, we realize there is nothing left to protect or preserve. Its gone. In fact, to be more accurate, there's a significant deficit, with absolutely no resources to repay. He's talking about those who are totally depraved. That's where everything starts. Because man has nothing in which to offer God. Spiritual poverty is the foundation of all other graces. True happiness is only for those who realize they are unworthy. The word poor is the Greek word "ptóchos," meaning one who crouches and cowers, beggarly. It is the state of being so poor and so destitute, that all you can do is beg. A miserable sinner who is under God’s curse, and all he can do is beg for mercy. That is the true diagnosis of man. He is saying, "Blessed are the beggars." He is indicting the self-righteous culture, you cannot get in on your own terms.
Then, in verse 4, He says "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." So, the second one is mourning over it. Anybody who has ever been through pain, or sorrow, or disappointment knows what it is to yearn for comfort in a life of suffering. It seems as though the deeper the sorrow, the deeper the pain and disappointment, the more elusive the place of comfort is. Even as a child of God, I have shed tears of sorrow, loneliness, of terrible discouragement and defeat. Our Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus because He deeply loved him. He wept over the city of Jerusalem because He loved them and had compassion. There's nothing wrong with that. To mourn is a very normal human emotion, tears are a gift from God to release that pain. In that sense, sorrow has a way of just sort of building you up and strengthening you. There is also a mourning that is unhealthy, because it cannot rejoice in the exaltation of the one we love so deeply. That’s pure selfishness. This happens even in the case of Christians.
In II Corinthians 7, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death." In other words, worldly sorrow will not bring you life. There’s only one kind of sorrow that brings life, godly sorrow, which leads you to repentance. You’re not mourning over your circumstances, its sorrow over sin, because you feel so guilty. The spiritual poverty in verse 3 will lead to the mourning in verse 4. This is a deep agony, an inner pain.
Jesus says, comforted are the mourners. This is contrary to everything we know. The world's desire is to avoid the mourning, to avoid the sorrow, and the pain. Here, Jesus says happy are those that mourn, for you shall be comforted. He condemns the happiness of the world, with the opposite of the world’s philosophy.
By the way, in the Greek, there are nine different verbs to speak of grief in the New Testament, this is the strongest of the nine. It's the Greek verb "penthéō," which means manifested grief, that is so severe it takes possession of a person. One of the dangers is that we seem to reach the point of utter brokenness, of total emptiness, before we turn to Christ. We must exercise caution when leading others to Christ, telling them that if they come to Christ, their life is going to get better, it may not. Christ offers forgiveness for sins and the gift of eternal life, not an instant cure for the problems in this life. The truth is, all of a sudden you look at things very differently. As a footnote, the word comforted is the Greek verb "parakaléō," means to exhort, to encourage and appears 109 times in the New Testament. We must trust in Him and His provision, because we are inadequate.
In I Corinthians 4, Paul says "For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" It truly grieves my heart for the utter foolishness that goes on in the name of Christianity, they rejoice in their iniquity. They celebrate it. Well, I have a word for those people, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord! Conviction of sin must precede genuine conversion. Salvation only comes by repentance. And, if that isn't true in your case, I have to question whether you were ever saved. The New Testament never talks about making a decision to come to Christ, if you fill out a card and say a little prayer. To have some pastor tell you that you're a Christian. All it talks about is you are a Christian, if there’s present evidence. God demands genuine repentance. If you don’t know the difference you’ve got a serious problem. The Word of God does not say, "Blessed are those with healthy self-esteem, who think highly of themselves." People need to understand who they are in relationship to a holy God. We must reassess everything in the light of God's Word.
David says in Psalm 51, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Happiness comes in true mourning. We must deal with the sin in our life every day, because righteousness and sin are battling inside of us. Overcoming sin isn’t a one-time deal, it's a constant, ongoing battle.
That's why Paul says in Romans 7, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."
In Closing..
Myself, I’m sick and tired of this fight. I want relief from sin. No wonder Paul writes in Philippians 1, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake."
I'll be mourning over my sin for the rest of my life. You had ought to be too. And, if we are continually confessing our sin, we give evidence of being the ones who are being forgiven. In the New Testament, we learn so much about Jesus, but one thing we never see, is Jesus laugh. And, if He did, it isn’t recorded. Sin is like a heavy burden, far too heavy for me. It's hard for me to imagine that Jesus ever had much to laugh about. That's why Jesus wept.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen