Bailing Hay and the Beattitudes

ENGAGE

Hello Church!

I am Shawn Kasten, Associate Pastor of Discipleship here at Elk River Church of the Nazarene

and I am excited to be with you this evening for worship.

TENSION

Have you ever volunteered, or got drafted into doing something you really didn't know how to do, but had to fake your way through it and figure it out as you go?

ILLUSTRATION ABOUT BAILING HAY

There was a girl I had a super huge crush on in high school, and she had gotten sick, and was unable to help her dad and brother to gather up the bails of hay onto their flatbed trailer, so me, wanting to impress both the girl and her father, I volunteered, having no knowledge of how to do anything remotely farm related, and having the upper body strength of a kindergartner, and i would soon find out, upper body strength is really important in tossing hail bails onto a moving truck.

But i learned quickly, and positioned myself in the last spot, so that the others would get the bulk of the work, and from where her dad was sitting on the tractor, it looked like i was doing an amazing job.

I never volunteered to work the hay fields again, and of course it didn't impress the girl at all, I honestly don't even know if she ever even knew I did it, unless of course her dad or brother told her how bad I was at it.

Tonight we are going to be looking at a situation where Jesus’ first disciples are thrown into a similar situation, where they really didn’t have any idea what they were doing, but they followed him anyway.

Jesus calls Simon and his brother Andrew, as well as James and John in Matthew chapter 4 and then immediately they followed him all over the area of Galilee. Jesus was teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, and healing all kinds of diseases and sicknesses among the people.

And people started to take notice of what Jesus was doing., and the people started bringing him all those who were afflicted, the demon possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics, and he healed them.

Because of this, large crowds began to follow Jesus.

Tonight’s passage comes from Matthew chapter 5, as Jesus sees the crowds growing, and he takes time to talk to his disciples.

This passage is the introduction to The Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. This is Jesus’s first set of teachings recorded in Scripture.

These three chapters were probably not delivered all at one time, but rather spread out over multiple teaching sessions, and Matthew bundled them together in his written format.

Luke records some of the same subjects spread out in his take on the gospel.

To read and understand the Sermon on the Mount, is to discover what it means to be Jesus’ disciples.

TRUTH

Turn with me to Matthew 5:1 and we are going to take a look at the first four beatitudes, or blessings that make up the start of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We will find that these hold the basics of what it means to be a Christian, and how to live out the Christian life.

Matthew 5:1 (CSB)

1 When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Jesus often took a break from active ministry in the field, to recharge, and in this case, he takes a break to recruit help.

He has been busy doing all these healings and restoring people, and he takes the opportunity to do some preventative education and trains his disciples to have the same compassion and love for the people that he loves.

Matthew 5:2–3 (CSB)

2 Then he began to teach them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Jesus is teaching his disciples, but we know he is teaching the crowds as well, Matthew 7:28-29 shows us that the crowds were amazed by his teachings.

Matthew is showing us early on that Jesus’ gospel is spreading. Jesus needs help to keep up the growth rate. So he begins teaching and training his disciples to follow in his footsteps.

Isaiah 66:2 says that God will look upon the humble and contrite in spirit, who tremble at his word.

Jesus starts off his teaching with a blessing, a promise that comes before a command. Blessed is similar to our word “happy” or “content”.

Psalm 1:1 is similar

Psalm 1:1 (CSB)

1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!

The Greek word for “poor”, comes from the root word for “to cower, to cringe”. These are not those who choose to live simply or in modest poverty, rather the poor here are probably society’s marginalized people. The city’s underclass.

Jesus here indicates that they have reached rock bottom physically, emotionally, and spiritually as well.

These are those who cannot live without God’s supernatural help and intervention. These are people who recognize that they are helpless without God’s help.

All the other blessings point back to this one. Just as all the other ten commandments point back to loving God.

The second blessing is found in Matthew 5:4

Matthew 5:4 (CSB)

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

This refers back to Isaiah 61:1-2

Isaiah 61:1–2 (CSB)

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners;

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn,

Notice that he says “mourn” not “mope”. Often we get into the “oh wow is me” stage and keep our selves there. I do not think this is what God is referring to here. Rather, he will bless real, genuine sadness.

Matthew 5:5 (CSB)

5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.

The humble people, another way of saying “the poor in spirit” will inherit the earth. These people are those who make no claims for themselves before God or before other people, these people are most often the “powerless” people.

We see an example, arguably the best example in Jesus at his trial in Matthew 25 and 27. We do not see weakness, but we do not see aggression and bold claims from Jesus.

Matthew 5:6 (CSB)

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

The first four Beatitudes or Blessings in are often referred to as the Poor Beatitudes of Grace and Faith.

All four show a person in need: lacking spirit, happiness, power, and now, righteousness. It are these people that Jesus gives his first promises to.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness in Matthew’s gospel is to desire to be a doer of God’s will.

Righteousness in Matthew is not only a divine gift, it is right conduct.

These people feel starved for the righteousness of God.

APPLICATION

When we look at these first four beatitudes or blessings, we see a theme that shows up in other places in Scripture later on, the theme of Jesus being more important and ourselves being less important.

Galatians put it this way-

Galatians 2:20 (CSB)

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We cannot be a disciple of Christ and not humble ourselves to the point of these first four Beatitudes.

We cannot put ourselves above others, and certainly not above Christ.

These Beatitudes turn the value system of the world upside down. Things the world values are not important in the kingdom of God.

I am sure the first Disciples see Jesus doing these healings and miraculous things, and they felt much like I did as I walked toward that tractor pulling an empty trailer, looking out over this huge field full of bails of hay.

I'm sure “what have I gotten myself into” crossed their minds often.

And now Jesus takes a break and begins training them how to do things that are completely opposite of the way they had always lived their lives.

INSPIRATION/REFLECTION

Jesus begins teaching who a disciple is, and what a Disciple does.

These men who have given up their day jobs and joined Christ, are learning on the job. Jesus is teaching them exactly what they have to do to be a Disciple, and he is preparing them to make more disciples, which is what Jesus does, and these are only the first four of the blessings or beatitudes!

He doesn't just call us to BE a disciple, built into our calling as disciples is the call to make more disciples.

NEXT STEPS

Today, if you can not come before the Lord humble, broken and in total desperation for his grace, we need to confess to him that you are holding yourself to a greater position than you deserve, and that you need him to come in and put you in your place.

Sometimes its in one particular area of our lives, sometimes its all over. The important thing is that we humble ourselves enough to be able to stand before God and submit to his will.

If you are not starved for the righteousness of God, then today is the day you need to hit your knees and reach out to him begging for more, more of his power, more of his righteousness in your life.

Sometimes we get stuck in OUR Christian lives, that we forget that Jesus called us to him to help bring others to him. Maybe today you need to go to God and ask him to help you to recover the lifestyle of bringing others to Jesus.

Lets open up the altar if you would like to come forward and pray that you can humble yourself and submit to Christ’s authority, so that you can receive the blessings that are promised to us in these passages, if we just put ourselves into a posture to receive them.

PRAYER

Father God, we come before you as a church, broken and in need of your power to repair us.

We come as a people who realize that we are broken. We realize that we are the problem.

We have let sin come into our lives, we have let the world come into our lives, and we have not relied on the creator of the world to sustain us and renew us every day.

Lord, we ask that you fill us with the Holy Spirit's power and your love, to help us to live our lives like the Beatitudes call us to.

To walk with you as humble servants, poor in spirit, but rich in love.

Jesus, you took our sin and made it your own, so that we wouldn’t have to take the punishment that we deserve.

Now Jesus, you live within us and help us, you lead us and guide us, and give us the ability to be people of the Beatitudes, people who know that we are broken and need help from you.

Lord be our God, Lord, we are your people.

Help us to be more like your son every day.

Help us to do miraculous things for your kingdom as you promised, and help us to take time to teach and train others to do the same, so that your kingdom will grow and take back the earth for you.

Lord we ask all these things in Jesus’ name.

Amen