MATTHEW 5:7-12 - ...As Happiness Does

Introduction

I remember reading an anecdote a while back about a pastor who was stopped at a traffic light behind a car that had several Christian bumper stickers—one of which said, “Honk If You Love Jesus”. So the pastor, wanting to encourage his fellow believer in the car ahead, gave a friendly couple of taps on his car horn—whereupon the driver of the car rolled down his window and flipped him off… It goes to show, doesn’t it, that just because the Name of Christ is on the outside, doesn’t mean the heart of Christ is on the inside...

This is exactly where we are this morning in our study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We considered last week how so many different interpretations of this Sermon really miss the mark of what Jesus was teaching here: Socialists who want to idolize the poor and create class warfare, eschatologists who want to move this whole Sermon and its application to the distant future (where it won’t bother anybody today), and so on.

But what we see here is not some utopian ideal or justification for a Hegelian dialectic; what Jesus is announcing in this Sermon is a new way of being human. The Kingdom He is bringing with Him is a Kingdom that is made up of people who have been completely and totally transformed by repentance and faith in Him. The Sermon that Jesus preaches in these chapters is a description of what a life looks like that has been reborn by the Gospel. We see in the first six verses that this New Birth is characterized by a recognition of our spiritual poverty—that we are “poor in spirit”, and there is nothing we can do for ourselves to be worthy of this Kingdom. It is a heart that mourns over its sinfulness and offense towards God. It is a heart that humbly and meekly accepts the just and righteous declaration of its guilt before a holy God.

In short, the four Beatitudes that we studied last week are characteristic of a heart that is happy before God because it is a heart that completely rests in God’s grace in salvation. True happiness belongs to you when you humbly and openly confess your sin before God and rest in His grace to save you and re-create your heart so that you become a new creation in Him—it is our recognition that

Titus 3:5–6 (ESV)

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

True happiness grows in the heart that has been born again by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. It is a happiness that grows out of our great sense of our need for Him and the magnitude of the goodness He has showered on us.

And so the next four Beatitudes here in Jesus’ Sermon answer the question that follows from the first four: If you have been born again by the grace of God with this kind of heart—what kind of person does that make you? If you have been born again, as Jesus describes in John 3, then what does your life look like? How do you act? What are your priorities, how do you respond to the situations you find yourself in?

What we see here in these verses—what I pray that God will make clear to you here—is that if you belong to Christ by faith, it will show up in the way you live. The Godward happiness of verses 1-6 show up in the horizontal relationships that we have with one another. A heart that belongs to God by faith is a heart that keeps His commandments:

1 John 2:5–6 (ESV)

5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The Beatitudes are descriptions of what true happiness before God looks like. The first half of the Beatitudes show us that true happiness grows in a heart that has been reborn by the Gospel. And in the second half of the Beatitudes Jesus teaches us that

A REBORN heart produces HAPPY OBEDIENCE to God’s COMMANDS

We know we have a regenerate heart—we know we are born again—when our lives are marked by happy obedience to God’s commands. Commands such as we find in Luke 6:36:

Luke 6:36 (ESV)

36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

And so we see here in Matthew 5:7:

Matthew 5:7 (ESV)

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

A reborn heart is

I. A heart that delights in MERCY (Matthew 5:7; cp. Luke 6:36)

Now, I don’t know what kind of childhood you had, but how many of you remember playing a game called “Mercy” as a kid? In the version I remember, you and your opponent would stand facing each other and lace your fingers together, palm to palm. The game consisted of both of you trying to bend each others’ hands over backwards until one of you (usually having dropped to your knees) would yell “Mercy!”

I think there’s a tendency to think about the quality of mercy in terms of strong versus weak—that it is someone more powerful choosing not to harm someone who is helpless. There’s probably something to that, but I think it is far closer to what Jesus means in this verse to understand mercy as grace in action. Grace is the quality of undeserved love or favor—mercy is the act of showing undeserved love or favor to someone who does not deserve it. Mercy is having the right to punish or blame, but choosing to show love instead.

And so a heart of mercy will show grace

To those who are GUILTY

‌It’s very easy to see our neighbors and friends who are suffering the consequences of their sinful behavior and respond with some version of “Oh well--play stupid games, win stupid prizes...” It is true, after all, that a life of rebellion against God and hatred of His standards of morality will all too often result in brokenness, guilt, shame and emptiness. But mercy delights to show love in spite of that guilt! A reborn heart produces happy obedience to God’s command to show mercy to those who don’t deserve it at all.

A heart that delights in mercy, Jesus says, will delight in showing it to those who are guilty, and will also delight to show it

To those who are MISERABLE

The word that is rendered mercy here in Matthew 5:7 is a word that signifies not just the emotion of mercy—not just feeling merciful—but also the sense of acting out that mercy. We have noted before the source of Jesus’ compassion—that what He did arose out of what He saw. His seeing provoked compassion which caused Him to act. For instance, in later on in Matthew we read

Matthew 9:36 (ESV)

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Once again, we live in a day and age (and we all live in a lifestyle) that sees someone who is miserable for one reason or another and our response tends to be “Suck it up, Buttercup...” And that’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of people who really do need to hear that! But Jesus says that if you have a heart that has been transformed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, you will delight in showing mercy to those who are miserable!

And Jesus goes on in the rest of the verse to say that the delight that you have in showing mercy flows from your assurance that He sees and remembers your mercy to others!

Hebrews 6:10 (ESV)

10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

A reborn heart produces happy obedience to God’s commands—it is a heart that delights to show mercy, and Jesus goes on to say in verse 8 that it is

II. A Heart that delights in PURITY (Matthew 5:8; cp. 1 John 3:2-3). 

In 1 John 3, God’s children are commanded to seek purity:

1 John 3:2–3 (ESV)

2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

And so here Jesus says that the happy obedience of the reborn heart includes purity:

Matthew 5:8 (ESV)

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Jesus makes it very clear that the kind of purity He is talking about isn’t just conformity to some outside standard of what is “pure”—the Pharisees of His day were famous for making great shows of purity—in Mark’s Gospel we are told that the Pharisees used to make a great show of washing themselves after they came home from the marketplace—demonstrating that they were more pure than the Gentiles they mingled with there (Mark 7:3-5).

The Pharisees only cared about looking pure on the outside—but Jesus makes it clear here in His Sermon that purity is not merely an outward appearance,

It is a GENUINE delight (cp. Mark 7:3-4; 18-23)

As Thomas Watson put it:

“A man may be wonderfully moralized, yet but a tame devil.… Morality may damn as well as vice. A vessel may be sunk with gold, as well as with dung...”

As one commentator puts it:

Purity of heart must never be confused with outward conformity to rules. Because it is the heart which must be pure, this beatitude interrogates us with awkward questions like these: ‘What do you think about when your mind slips into neutral? How much sympathy do you have for deception, no matter how skillful? For shady humor, no matter how funny? To what do you pay consistent allegiance? What do you want more than anything else? What and whom do you love? To what extent are your actions and words accurate reflections of what is in your heart? To what extent do your actions and words constitute a cover up for what is in your heart (25) (Storms, S. (2016). Biblical Studies: The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:8). Sam Storms.)

This is why the so-called “purity culture” of the 90’s and early 2000’s in evangelical Christianity ended so very badly (including the tragic apostasy and renunciation of faith from its loudest proponent, Josh Harris)—any time the focus is merely conforming to an outward standard, it is doomed to fail.

But the purity of heart that Jesus commends here is not just an outward standard; it is a genuine delight—and

It always STRIVES toward God (Hebrews 12:14)

Jesus makes it clear, doesn’t He, that the reward for the purity the believer strives for is not recognition from others; it is not merely some personal development goal. The reason that the reborn heart delights in purity is because it is the means by which we grow closer to God!

Hebrews 12:14 (ESV)

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

When you come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, His blood washes you from all of your impurity. His death pays the price for all of the filth and perversion and brokenness and abuse and ugliness of your past, and the new, pure heart that He gives you is your delight—delight in living in that purity, and delight in knowing that this very purity He has purchased for you is the means by which you will see Him face to face!

A reborn heart produces happy obedience to God’s commands—it is a heart that delights to show mercy, a heart that delights in purity, and in verse 9 Jesus says it is

III. A heart that delights in RECONCILIATION (Matt. 5:9)

Matthew 5:9 (ESV)

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

The Apostle Paul calls his readers to the same heartfelt delight in peace in Romans 12--

Romans 12:18 (ESV)

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

And notice that Jesus isn’t just describing a heart that loves peace—who doesn’t love peace, after all?—Jesus is describing the heart of someone who loves to make peace. A heart that delights in making peace, delights in reconciliation, loves

To CREATE it where it does NOT exist... (Romans 5:1; 2 Cor. 5:17-20)

The most important work of peacemaking, of course, is the peace that Christ purchased between God and man—the Apostle Paul writes about this in Romans 5:1

Romans 5:1 (ESV)

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, because you have that reconciliation with God, you love to see others reconciled to God as well--

2 Corinthians 5:17–20 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

See the striking connection here that Jesus makes in this Beatitude—the peacemakers shall be called “the sons of God”. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, accomplished the greatest work of reconciliation ever—making peace between us and God by His death, burial and resurrection. And so, Christian, when you love to make peace between God and man through sharing this Gospel, you are demonstrating that you are a child of God!

A heart that loves to make peace is a heart that loves to create it where it doesn’t exist—and it is also a heart that loves

...To PROTECT it where it DOES exist (Ephesians 4:2-3)

A child of God loves the peace of the Body of Christ; loves to nurture and guard and work toward that peace in fellowship—as Paul would write in Ephesians 4, the heart that delights in peace will seek to protect that peace

Ephesians 4:2–3 (ESV)

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

But the eagerness for that peace must never be allowed to descend into a desire for peace at any cost. It is far too easy—especially in this day and age—to adopt a “go along to get along” mentality, no rocking the boat, no stepping on toes, no confronting the kinds of sin that will actually destroy the peace and unity of a congregation. It is far too easy to remain silent in the midst of a nation that wants nothing to do with any message that calls it to recognize its sin before God.

The heart that delights in reconciliation will want to see that reconciliation take place between sinners and God by proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins. Even if it means they will be hated and reviled. The heart that delights in peace between brothers and sisters in Christ will seek to protect that peace, even if it means being considered “harsh” or “unloving” when it tries to address the sins that will destroy the peace and unity of the church.

Which leads us to the next statement that Jesus makes about a heart of happy obedience to His commands. A heart that has been born again by the Gospel is a heart that will

IV. Delight in SUFFERING for Christ’s Name (Matthew 5:10-12)

Matthew 5:10 (ESV)

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The notion of being happy to be persecuted for the sake of Christ can be difficult to comprehend—and perhaps for this reason, this is the only Beatitude that He goes on to expand and reiterate in the next two verses:

Matthew 5:11–12 (ESV)

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

We have this same command elsewhere in the Scriptures—the Apostle Peter writes in his first letter:

1 Peter 4:12–14 (ESV)

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

When you faithfully and gladly stand for the Name of Christ in a culture that hates Him; when you are willing to be looked down on and reviled and insulted because you would rather be loved by Him than loved by the world, you have at least two great reasons to be greatly happy. In fact, this is also the only Beatitude that Jesus explicitly commands you to rejoice in. The first reason, as He says, is that you rejoice because

Your REWARD is great (cp. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Matthew 5:12 (ESV)

12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven...

When you are hated and mocked and insulted for the sake of Christ’s Name, you have a great promise that God sees it, and He will reward it! The Apostle Paul, who suffered greatly for the sake of Christ’s Name, clung to this promise in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17:

2 Corinthians 4:16–17 (ESV)

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison...

Christian, you rejoice in your sufferings for the Name of Christ because it means that that suffering is preparing for you eternal glory that you cannot even begin to imagine!

And if that were not reason enough to rejoice, Jesus says that your suffering for His Name proves that

You BELONG to Him (cp. Romans 8:17)

Jesus says that when you suffer for His sake, you suffer just like “the prophets who were before you”—do you realize what He is saying? He is numbering you with His faithful prophets throughout history! He is naming you as one of His people! Paul says this very thing in Romans 8:17: that we are

Romans 8:17 (ESV)

17 ...heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

The heart that has been reborn by the saving faith in Jesus Christ is a heart that is able to rejoice when it is reviled for His sake! Suffering with Christ is a sure sign that you belong to Christ! And the heart that belongs to Christ will thrill at any proof of that belonging—even if it means derision, mockery, insults and slander!

Jesus is declaring here in this Sermon that He is inaugurating a new way of being human—a reborn heart that produces happy obedience to God’s commands. What do these verses reveal about your heart this morning? Do you have a heart that loves to show mercy to those who don’t deserve it? Do you remember the mercy shown to you by Christ in your salvation, and so you delight to show mercy to those who are miserable in their sin, who are undeniably guilty in their iniquities? Or are you quick to want to punish those who are guilty, that you want to see them pay for their sin? What kind of heart do you have?

Do you delight in the purity that God calls you to? Do you love the holiness that Christ purchased for you by His blood, do you rejoice in your freedom from the mire of your past, are you pursuing that purity because it is the path to greater intimacy with Him—that seeing Him face to face is your greatest reason for the holiness you seek to cultivate? Or are you content with an inner thought life that can wander wherever it wants—you can indulge in whatever daydreams or fantasies you want, as long as your actions are pure? It’s okay to daydream about screaming at your spouse, as long as you don’t actually do it—that you can fantasize about sex with your co-worker as long as you don’t physically touch them. Is your purity only outward? What kind of heart do these Beatitudes reveal in you?

Do you delight in making peace with others? Do you rejoice in the opportunity to see your friends or neighbors or family members become reconciled to God through Christ? Do you rejoice at the opportunity to see broken relationships healed by God’s Spirit? Or are you content to let those who don’t know Christ continue in their lost condition, never coming to a reconciliation with God through Christ? Are you better at holding grudges, nursing bitterness, getting others to join you in your grudges and getting them to validate your reasons why you refuse to seek reconciliation with those who are estranged from you? What kind of heart for peacemaking do Jesus’ words reveal in you?

Jesus says that the reborn heart rejoices to suffer for His Name. Are you able to obey His command to “rejoice and be exceedingly glad” when you are insulted for being a Christian? Do you delight to be called names for your stand for Christ, seeing those insults as proof that you belong to Jesus? Do you count every slander as another reason to celebrate, or as a reason to hide? Are you content to keep your head down, not draw attention to yourself, let opportunities to stand up for your faith pass you by so that you can avoid the uncomfortable prospect of being laughed at for your faith? As one preacher put it, “If you believe that you are above and beyond persecution, then you are above and beyond Jesus!” (Piper).

What do Jesus’ words reveal about your heart? This Sermon Jesus is preaching is declaring a new way of being human--way of living that rejoices in mercy, that delights in purity, that is eager to reconcile, that is glad at the prospect of persecution. And it is a heart that is impossible to create on your own.

The very worst thing that you can do after hearing Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes is to go home and say, “OK, so I am going to try really hard to be merciful from now on...” “I am going to be extra careful to be pure in my thoughts and actions this week...” “OK, I guess I should force myself to forgive my mother for what she did to us...” Because what Jesus is calling you to do in these verses cannot be done with a heart that has not been reborn by faith in Him. When Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are “poor in spirit”—utterly, completely spiritually bankrupt—He means that the only way you can belong to this Kingdom is if He makes you fit for it.

The only way you can have a heart that will produce joyful obedience to God’s commands is when you come to Jesus Christ and confess that you have no ability to please Him on your own. That your sin and rebellion has so completely ruined any chance of being accepted by God that it is only by His mercy that you can stand before Him. That you trust in His death, burial and resurrection as the payment for your penalty before a holy and righteous God. That it is

Titus 3:5–6 (ESV)

5 ...not because of works done by you in righteousness, but according to his own mercy [that he saves you], by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he pours out on you richly through Jesus Christ your Savior

when you call on Him in faith. He is the only hope you have to enter into the new way of being human; He is the only way that you can have this reborn heart that will rejoice in obeying Him. Don’t leave here today without knowing—without really knowing—that you belong to Him by faith, so that you can enter into this joy, this freedom, this blessedness through the mercy of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What does it mean to be “merciful”? What is the relationship between giving and receiving mercy, according to Jesus’ words here? Why do you think a person who has received mercy is in a position to show it to others?

What does it mean to be “pure in heart”? What is the difference between observing standards of purity and loving those standards? How does the New Birth enable us to go beyond merely outward conformity to those standards?

Read Ephesians 2:14-16. How do these veres describe the way Jesus made peace between us and God, and between each other? Why do you think Jesus says in Matthew 5 that those who seek to make peace are called “Sons of God”?

Read John 15:18. According to Jesus in that verse, why is persecution a necessary part of the Christian life? How does Christ’s death and resurrection give us courage in the face of hatred and slander in this world?