Matthew 8

Sermon on the Mount

Matthew chapter five begins a portion of scripture refered to as the Sermon on the Mount. This was the longest sermon that Jesus ever preached and when timed out still only took roughly 18 minutes to say. In those 18 minutes though Jesus essentially gives us everything we need to become a Christian and to then follow after Him faithfully once we have come to know Him. Our goal for the next several 180’s will be to break down this sermon and apply it to our lives. Not every aspect of this sermon will apply to you as students as I am sure none of you are considering a divorce so we may skip over certain sections for the sake of time.

The Beatitudes

The first section of the sermon on the mount is called the beatitudes. This is the section where each statement begins with the word blessed. I am sure you are all familiar with the passage, but lets talk broadly about it for just a second. The beatitudes is really like an abstract at the beginning of an essay. The sermon on the mount has an overall theme of how to live a happy Christian life and the beatitudes is the cliff notes version of the sermon. The term beatitudes comes from a latin word beatus which means blessed or happy. So, the beatitudes is essentially a list of character traits that those who are truly blessed, meaning those who share in the love, joy, and peace that Jesus offers, possess.

For times sake I do not want to break down each one individually and spend time on them all but there are five in particular that I believe warrant some further explanation so we will focus in on those four. To begin though I would like to read through the entire list of the beatitudes so we can hear them and understand them as a cohescive list and not individual statements.

Matthew 5:1–12 “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught 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 meek, 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 are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

You will notice that some of these are fairly self explanatory but I would ask that you study them all in your own time to get the full implication of each statement. For no let’s begin in verse 3

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

I believe that this is one that is not widely understood exactly what is meant by poor in spirit? How can we be poor in spirit and why is that a good thing? It sounds more disheartening than it does a quality to pursue. Here is the word that I believe words best to describe poor in spirit, HUMILITY. Being poor in spirit means that we are not puffed up with pride and arrogance thinking that we deserve better than what we have. Many people feel entitled due to their family or their actions to a life of ease and luxury. This is true for those who are financially wealthy and those who are financially poor. I have heard people on both sides of the spectrum claim that a better life is owed to them for what they have done. Being poor in spirit is being humble and recognizing that we do not deserve any of the good that God has given us. Yet God has given us life and especially us here in America He has given us one of the easiest lives of any human being on Earth. Being poor in spirit is being grateful for what God has done for us and being content with the hand we have been dealt by God settling in to do His will where He has placed us.

Blessed are the meek

Skip down to verse five for our second beatitude to cover and you’ll see blessed are the meek. Meekness I believe has gotten a bad wrap in our society. Those who are meek are often conflated with those who are cowardly or those who are weak. On the contrary to be meek is to be corageous and strong. Meekness first and foremost means a willingness to submit to the authority of God in your life. Accepting and embracing the fact that we are not in control of our lives but it is God who has total control and that is an incredible thing that we are grateful for. Secondly, it is about how we relate to those who are around us. In our world today we are very hot headed. I speak now as someone who nearly everyone who knew me when I was in school would have described me as an extreme hothead. Meekness is about being the calm in the storm. When everyone else around you is ready to go to war you seek a reasonable solution. I had to learn that to be meek takes much more strength than to be outspoken. It is easy to fight and yell and blow up over what you believe. It is one of the hardest things for me to do to sit quietly and remain calm in the face of opposition.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

Third is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. First what is righteousness? Righteousness simply means seeking what is right. When we try to be righteous we are seeking out the most just and God pleasing methods for handling a situation. None of us can be truly righteous. Only God is truly righteous as humanity is still tainted by sin and evil we cannot be righteous in every action that we take. So, what does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? Think of hunger and thirst, it is not simply a desire to eat and drink that we have right? No, we have a need for food. Without food and water we cannot live. Not only that, but we must get it reguarly. That is what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. It is not simply a desire to see good done in the world, but it is a need that we feel to enact that good in the lives of those around us. If we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness then in all of our dealings with the world around us we feel a need to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord to those who we are with. We won’t perfectly act in a righteous way every time, but we will be burdened by it when we don’t. Just like you feel a pain in your stomach when you don’t eat you will feel a pain in your soul when you don’t act righteously.

Blessed are the pure in heart

Lastly is blessed are the pure in heart. I have to admit this one took some thinking on my part on the exact meaining of this one. You see none of us are truly pure in heart. We all have sin and even after accepting Christ we still have sinful desires that make our hearts filthy. So, how can we be pure in heart? Well, I believe this statement is two fold. First, Jesus died to give us the purity that we could not have on our own. While our true heart is filthy, we are no longer judged by that heart. We are judged by the faith we placed in Jesus Christ who died to give us a pure heart as a replacement for our heart of stone. The second meaning is about the Spirits work in our lives as Christians. When we invite the Spirit into our lives He dwells in our hearts and does the work we call sanctification. It is a gradual process of purifying the heart by growing the desire for the things of God while diminishing the desires of the flesh. As we feed the Spirit by spending time with believers, spending time in Gods word, and spending time in prayer gradually we will begin to love the ways of the Lord more and despise the sinful habits we used to have. In this life we will never totally cleanse the heart of all evil and unGodly desires, but as we grow in maturity in Christ we will se progress being made towards that goal.

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The purification of the heart is the good work that God has started in you and on the day that we meet Jesus face to face the work shall be completed an our heart will be totally cleansed of all evil desires. It may feel like you arent making any progress sometimes and that youre stagnant, but persevere and look for the little growth each day. James Clear, the author of a book called Atomic Habits, reccomends that when you are trying to make a change in your life you don’t make big jumps. No, each day you look for a one percent increase. I am one percent better than I was yesterday and over time that one percent adds up until eventually you do not even recognize the old you anymore. I promise you from experience that is the truth. The heart that I have today is a totally different one than I had when I was in high school. I made a commitment to slowly work towards that goal and God has gradually brought me to where I am today and while I am no where near complete, I am far better than I was.

Blessed are you when others revile you

Finally I want to close by reading back over verses eleven and twelve.

Matthew 5:11–12 ““Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

All of what we talked about today will be a challenge. It will set you apart from your peers to live out this style of life and many will dispise you for it. Friends will abandon you and strangers will mock you. Take joy in it. Your reward will be great in heaven so what we endure here on Earth is nothing in comparrison to the heavenly rewards that God promises to us.