Trust In God's Strength

Blessed Means Being Eternally Happy

12.29.23 [Matthew 5:1-12] River of Life (3rd Sunday of Epiphany)

How important is your happiness to you? Your answer to this question might vary from year to year, or even moment to moment, but not too much. How important is your happiness to you? An honest answer to this question recognizes that your happiness is important to you.

There are times when your happiness is of some importance. You’re more than willing to put your happiness on hold for someone else—especially someone you care about. There are other times when you happiness is of great importance—especially when you’ve gotten your hopes up. And there are also times when, each of us must admit, your happiness is of ultimate importance—nothing will stand in your way.

How important is your happiness to you? I suppose we must all admit that our answer to that very question varies a lot in life. Having said all that, our answers don’t much matter. Our choices, our actions, and our reactions reveal a lot more about how important our happiness is to us than any answer we might offer. When we are asked How important is your happiness to you? there is the answer we think, the answer we say, and the answer we live and they are all different.

The answer we say out loud is the most polished of the three. It doesn’t reflect well on us to say that our happiness is of ultimate importance. People that say that are rude and self-centered, greedy and inconsiderate. We don’t want to sound like them, so we soft pedal and down play how important our own happiness is to us.

The answer we say isn’t exactly the same as the answer we think. The answer we think isn’t polished. It's rougher. It’s more bold. Forceful. Even competitive, at times. The answer we think is always trying to figure out if there’s enough happiness to go around. We don’t want to always have to take a backseat to everyone else. We don’t want to get left out. We may sacrifice some of our happiness to make someone we love happy, but we won’t do that for just anybody—especially someone who has treated us poorly in the past.

And the answer we live can be even more brutish. We say we want our loved ones to be happy. We even think that’s true. But time and again, those people we think and say that we love have the unhappy task of pointing out to us how our pursuit of our own happiness has caused them problems, grief, and sadness. Loved ones have told us we have behaved rudely, self-centeredly, greedily, & inconsiderately. And some of the time, we had no idea.

When we have that eye-opening & humbling experience, we may begin to think that wanting to be happy is the problem. But God wants you to be happy. That’s what this whole section of Scripture is about. God wants you to be eternally happy—or as Jesus puts it: blessed. Being blessed means being eternally happy. So let’s look at those that Jesus says are eternally happy, or blessed.

The poor in spirit. The mourners. The meek. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The merciful. Pure in heart. Peacemakers. Those who are persecuted because of righteousness.

What do you think of Jesus’ list? It’s strange, isn’t it? If we were each asked to come up with 8 or 9 kinds of people we thought were blessed, I’m not sure we would name any that are on Jesus’ list. Not only that, but most of them are things we do not even aspire to be. I mean, who wants to be poor in spirit, mourning, or persecuted for righteousness or the name of Jesus?

We don’t want to be like these people, but we do want to be near most of them. We are blessed when we are in the company of those who are peacemakers and pure in heart. We are happiest when we are in the company of those who are ambitious about doing what right and best for the people around them. It’s a delight to spend time with a person who is poor in spirit, someone who is humble and unpretentious. It’s a joy to be with someone who is meek: considerate, sympathetic, and eager to help in any way they can; or someone who is merciful, not harsh or demanding, but quick to forgive and forget, to comfort and encourage. We respect people that are willing to suffer for their principles and their beliefs—especially Christians who have been persecuted because of their faith. We even appreciate knowing a few good mourners. Not because we want to spend every moment with them, but because we know, in a dark time or a sad moment, they’ll know just what to say and do, or not say or not do. Having these kinds of people in our lives makes us richer in a way you cannot put a price-tag on. It makes us happier. We are blessed by these types of people.

But we sure struggle to live this way, don’t we? Even when we try to be poor in spirit or meek or merciful our pride and arrogance pop up. Even when we want to be pure in heart or a peacemaker, we find ourselves becoming cynical and quick to stir up an argument. We wish we’d be more willing to endure hardship for the sake of our principles, our faith, and our Jesus, but when those moments come our way, we find ourselves complaining rather than rejoicing or being glad. Time and again, we choose short-term happiness over the eternal happiness that Jesus wants for us & speaks of in these words.

But these words aren’t meant to show us how we can make ourselves eternally happy. Even when we try, we can’t find the strength or the self-discipline to keep on doing it perfectly.

Rather, the Beatitudes reveal what God values. God values your eternal happiness—even more than you do. But God doesn’t just say he values your eternal happiness, he does what he says and these statements are promises from God about his will and his values, his words and his actions. These Beatitudes form an outline for us how Jesus lived, because Jesus is God made man. What God values, Jesus carries out. What God says is of ultimate importance, Jesus makes his highest goal and then fulfills perfectly. Jesus lived the Blessed life so that we could receive all these blessings & be eternally happy.

The greatest challenge we have is that Jesus was constantly living in this manner, so these characteristics don’t flow chronologically. Every moment of his life here on earth, Jesus was living like this.

(2 Cor. 8:9) Though Jesus was divinely rich, he made himself impoverished so that we might have the kingdom of heaven and be made eternally rich. Jesus humbled himself. He was poor in spirit. Not just our brother, but our servant.

Jesus mourned. Not just when something bad happened to him, like when his friend Lazarus died. Jesus mourned when he looked at a city that hated him without reason, Jerusalem. He mourned as someone who longed to gather these people under his saving wings, but they were not willing. Jesus mourned when the spiritual leaders of Israel viewed him as an agent of Satan instead of their Savior.

Yet, the Maker of heaven and earth behaved with unparalleled meekness. He was always putting the needs of others first. He was always sympathetic towards sinners. He was always eager to help those who were hurting and afflicted. He was always willing to teach.

Jesus had an appetite for righteousness. If anyone had an excuse to not be in worship each week, it would be the Son of God. But Jesus made it his habit to be in the synagogue each Sabbath Day, even when he knew that his enemies were only there to see if he would slip up. He honored and respected those in authority, even though he knew they were sinful and wicked and he wasn’t. Even when he was persecuted for his righteousness, Jesus refused to be dissuaded.

Jesus was merciful. He freely pronounced forgiveness to adulterers and tax collectors, to his friends who had turned their backs on him when he needed them most, and to his enemies as they were executing him.

Throughout his life on earth, Jesus exhibited a heart that was pure. He never lied or deceived anyone. He didn’t mock his enemies or treat anyone as if they were beneath him. He relished opportunities to demonstrated how high and wide and deep the love of God is for this world.

Jesus came to be a peacemaker. He did not come to establish peace the way the world understood it. He came to be the Prince of Peace, to give his life as a ransom for many. And as he died, the people who surrounded him considered him cursed by God. But he placed himself under our curse so that we might receive his blessing.

Jesus lived and died this way because this is what our God values. It’s not just something he says. These Beatitudes are how he thinks & speaks, lives & died. And he did all this because your eternal happiness is of ultimate importance to your God and Lord.

It would have been easy for God to just say, I’ve given the world a path to heaven. Be perfect as I am perfect and you will enjoy paradise. That would have demonstrated that our eternal happiness is of some importance to God.

Our holy God could have sent himself into this world to teach us how to live holy lives, step by step. That would have evidence that our eternal happiness is of great importance to our Creator.

But your God went beyond those things in taking on flesh and blood. He took on your sin—all the times that you chose temporal happiness over eternity with him, all the times you thought, spoke, and lived as if your concept of happiness was superior to God’s. Then God did the unthinkable. The all-powerful Father watched his beloved Son die in our place. The everlasting Son of God gave up his life so that we might be given his blessing. Blessed are we because of his poverty purity, and peacemaking. Blessed are we because of his mournful death, his meekness, and his mercy. Blessed are we because of his righteousness—which has been transferred to our account by grace through faith. Blessed are we, because we have seen God made man. Blessed are we, because we are now called children of God and co-heirs with Christ, his Son. Blessed are we because we are given comfort through his cross, and share in his great reward in heaven.

Because we are already blessed, and Christ dwells in us, we live in these blessed ways more and more. So rejoice when God provides you with the moments to practice your blessedness.

Rejoice when you are called to repent, when your spiritual poverty is laid bare. Rejoice because in that very moment, God is using the keys of his kingdom to release you from your bondage to sin, guilt, and shame. Rejoice your reward is great!

Rejoice when you are compelled to mourn the death of a loved one who has fallen asleep in Christ. Rejoice, because you do not have to mourn the way the rest of the world does. You don’t cling to your fond memories, but the hope of eternal life. Rejoice, your reward is great!

Rejoice when you are presented with moments to practice meekness. Rejoice when you are given opportunities to serve your neighbor. Rejoice when your time, your words, your resources meet their needs. Rejoice, your reward is great!

Rejoice that you desire to do what is right in God’s sight. That desire is not naturally found in any of us. But the desire to do what is good, what is right, what is pure, what is lovely, what is hard, but helpful and to do it all to the glory of God—this is proof of God dwelling in you. Rejoice because God has created in you a pure heart! Rejoice, you reward is great!

Rejoice, when people sin against you and desperately need your mercy. Rejoice because you don’t have to downplay their sin or pretend that you are capable of being the bigger person. Rejoice because you have the riches of Christ’s mercy at your disposal. Rejoice that God has called you to be a spiritual peacemaker. Rejoice, because your reward is great!

Rejoice even when you are persecuted for doing the right thing. Rejoice because this is how they treated your Savior. The world hated him without reason. They despised him. When they hate and despise you for doing what God commands, they hate you because they see him in you. When they curse you, bless them. When they mutter awful things about you behind your back, go to the Lord in prayer on their behalf. And rejoice, because your reward is great, because your God is great. And he has made your eternal happiness his greatest priority! Amen.