The Beatific Vision: Blessed are the pure in heart...; Build your Life #8, the 6th Beatitude

Intro: What makes you happy? really happy?

My family makes me happy. I’m happy that my girls are here. I’m happy that my son got married last month. Seeing my wife laugh makes me very happy- it’s one of my favorite things. E.g., last month at my son’s wedding, it’s one of the happiest times of my life, because I got to see all of these things come together at once.

When have you seen something that really & truly makes you happy? e.g., people; happy places- mountains, beaches; pets- my dog Gus, etc.

We are in a series of messages that are about truly, happy people- the Blessed. These are the people that Jesus says are truly fortunate ones.

Matthew 5:1-8, And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Vs. 8 describes the happy culmination of the Christian life, the blessed state of seeing God. “The Beatific Vision” it is the promise that one day we will see God as He is, in all of His unmitigated, majestic glory.

Beatific- blissfully happy, it comes from the Latin word beatifica, which means “to make happy or bless.” Vision- the act of seeing, the beatific vision is a sight that makes one happy, in this case- Seeing God.

1. IT IS A TERRIFIC PROMISE & A TERRIFYING PROSPECT.

The Bible begins and ends with people seeing God. It seems like Adam & Eve walked & talked with God in an intimate personal relationship. I think they saw Him as He really is, & that what they saw was the unmitigated, majestic glory of God. The reason I think this is because after they sinned, they hid themselves from God’s presence, why?

They did not want to be seen by Him, but maybe they also did not want to see Him,in the white-hot glory of His holiness because they were sinful. After the fall they were banished from the Garden, but worse than that- separated from God. No longer could mankind enjoy that same kind of intimate, unmediated relationship with God.

Several people in the OT saw God, but I don’t think it was in the same way as Adam & Eve.Abraham saw God, in the mediated state of 3 men, 2 who turned out to be angels, & one was the Lord. Jacob wrestled with a man all night long who turned out to be God. Joshua met the Captain of the Lord’s Host & worshipped Him. All of these are mediated appearances of God- Theophanies or Christophanies. Sometimes God appeared as a person, as the Angel of the Lord, or in visions, e.g., Isaiah 6- I saw the Lord high & lifted up… These people saw God in mediated & mitigated forms, but not in His fully majestic self.

Exodus 33:11, So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. It sounds like Moses really saw God as He is, but I don’t think so, & here is why. A few verses later (12-17), God & Moses are talking, & the Lord promises to go with them into the Promised Land, Moses wants assurances & makes a shocking request- please, show me Your Glory (vs. 18). This must be different from seeing God “face-to-face.” I think Moses had been in the mitigated & mediated Presence of God, but he had not seen the fully Majestic Essence of God.

God says, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (33:20). So, God tells Moses to stand on this rock by Him, that God will make His Goodness pass before Him, but cover Moses with His hand, & “you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen” (33:23). This is the state that we live in- sinful and separated from God, getting small glimpses of Him, but never the full picture because it would kill us.

ILL: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark- the Ark contained the power of God & you cannot look directly at God without dying. One person’s head imploded, one’s face melted off, one’s entire body exploded. Gruesome- but we just can’t stand in the unmitigated, unmediated, fully majestic Presence of God. We cannot see the Pure Essence of God & live. Not yet at least. Rev 22:4, They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. We are sinners.

2. IT DIAGNOSES A COMMON PROBLEM- SIN.

Anyone here have trouble seeing? The most common vision problems:

• myopia- nearsightedness

• hyperopia- farsighted

• presbyopia- inability to focus

• astigmatism- alters intake of light

The older I get, the harder it is for me to see at night. Lights are blurry, words & signs are fuzzy, things are darker. I have a pair of “night” driving glasses that help alleviate these symptoms (when I wear them).

Most commentaries agree that Matt 5:8is a direct allusion to Psalm 24:3-4, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. i.e., the ones who can come into the unmitigated, unmediated presence of God & stand before Him are those who are clean & pure, free from idolatry, and not a liar. Psalm 24 is a temple entry psalm, it’s not just the worshiper who enters the temple but God Himself (aka, the King of Glory, vss. 7-10). Psalm 15is a companion temple entry psalm that sheds light on Psalm 24:3-4.

When it talks about “clean hands” it means being innocent of doing harm to others, i.e., walk uprightly & works righteousness; justice; “pure heart” indicates moral purity; “not lifted up soul to an idol” indicates integrity, not having a heart divided (e.g., you cannot serve both God & money); “nor sworn deceitfully” hypocrisy of usury, bribery, & lying.

Since Jesus is talking about the promise of Seeing God, most likely based on these verses, I think it helps identify 4 common vision problems:

Spiritual nearsightedness- it’s easy to LOOK OVER someone in need.

Spiritual farsightedness- it’s easy to LOOK AT what should be far away.

Spiritual lack of focus- it’s easy to LOOK TO things as objects of worship.

Spiritual astigmatism- it’s easy to LOOK PAST deceit, light is altered.

To have a clear vision of God, we must have a pure heart. Pure- clean; sense of guiltless- ritual cleanliness or free of guilt and sin.

Heart (kardia)- not the organ, but the internal self, the inner man; the place within, the seat of a person’s mind, will, emotion, & conscience.

To have a pure heart means that it is not divided into internal & external components, but that there is a wholeness, a soundness to who we are inwardly that matches what is displayed outwardly.

Rather than looking over, at, to, & past what we shouldn’t, we need to LOOK ONLY for God in every way.

3. IT IDENTIFIES A CORRECTIVE PROCEDURE- FAITH.

My devotional reading is in John, one day this week I read John 14. John 14 falls into Jesus’ final discourse with His disciples before the cross. It begins in chapter 13 where Jesus washes His disciples’ feet & institutes the Lord’s Supper, it includes His fullest teaching about the Holy Spirit (14, 15, 16), & ends in His High Priestly Prayer (17). One of Jesus’ goals was to prepare His disciples for His departure. In John 14:1-4, Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.

Thomas- we don’t know where you are going, how can we know the way? Jesus-I am the way, the truth, & the life, no one comes to the Father... John 14:7, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.

Philip- show us the Father and it is enough for us. Enough for us?! How much more is there? To see God is Everything!

Jesus- John 14:9, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

Philip’s requestis the request of every age- “let me see God & I will believe!”Jesus’ gentle rebuke was that Philip had been with Him 3 years already, had already seen all the works He had done, & should know.

John 14:10, Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. I hope you picked up on the repeated word BELIEVE.

Fast forward to the end of John 20.After Jesus’ crucifixion & resurrection, He appeared to His disciples, 1st to Mary Magdalene, then to the other disciples, but Thomas wasn’t there.

A good reason not to miss church- you never know which church service will profoundly touch your life, but it won’t be the one you missed.

Thomas missed seeing Jesus the 1st time & said, unless I see & touch the nail prints in His hands, & the wound in His side, I will not believe.

The very next week Jesus shows up & says Thomas- reach your finger here & look at my hands; reach your hand here, & put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas said- My Lord & my God!

John 20:29, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We do have a spiritual vision problem- sin, or as one writer put it, we have “obstructions in the field of vision that need to be removed, but also cataracts in our own eyes.” There is a corrective procedure- FAITH.

SEEING ISN’T BELIEVING; BELIEVING IS SEEING.

Since Adam & Eve, Seeing God has been the hope of the ages! The Beatific Vision is the happy culmination of the Christian life!

Revelation 21:4, When we see God, (He) will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

Seeing God’s face will be a sight for sore eyes.

1 John 3:2, Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Adrian Rogers- I want to meet Jesus face to face, whom I’ve known heart to heart. There are two kinds of people listening to this- those who want to see God & those who don’t. The ones that don’t are not pure in heart, they are not forgiven of sins, that’s why God sent Jesus! Do you want to see God? You must believe in Jesus, be forgiven of your sins, & made pure of heart. If we have done that, we have the hope of seeing God. If we have that hope, we must purify ourselves, just as God is pure. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.