Sermon on the Mount: Blessed Be 3

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10 November: Anthony and Shannen Braswell will be with us again

28 November: Thanksgiving Meal

Intro

Things change when God speaks.

Throughout scripture, we read of moments in history where God had a one-on-one conversation with a person.

Where God had holy moments with His chosen people.

In the Gospels we are given the eye-witness accounts of God no longer cherry-picking specific people in history,

but in Matthew chapter 5, God - in Jesus - sits down on a hill side with men and women of all ages - each having their individual story, and their life, and experience.

And God sits with them, to deliver a new message.

That the kingdom of heaven is near to them - and ready for those who will receive it.

Just like at this special moment in history - we look at today and the reality that

God, the God of Heaven, the Author of all Creation, wants to speak into your life.

God wants to speak into your life.

There may be some of us here today that feel God’s presence more like God’s judgment. Maybe many times, we feel more concerned that if God is speaking to us it’s bringing more rebuke and wrath than real change.

Sometimes that’s true.

But the overarching theme as we read the Bible is that God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that by through Him we might be SAVED.

Those who are saved have received God’s blessing - a blessing that breaks the curse of sin and eternal death in your life.

You and I have a choice to receive the King, or to reject Him.

Last week, we looked at verses 5-7, and so this week we get to focus on verses 8-12:

Matthew 5:8–12 CSB

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Pray - Holy Spirit lead.

Jesus said:

John 14:27 CSB

27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

We can have peace, because God gives us HIS peace.

God is not bothered. Meaning, God has not lost His peace over anything in this world. Anything.

Though His heart mourns at the loss of life - He keeps His peace.

Though the world rages against His people - He keeps His peace.

Though His children suffer persecution - He keeps His peace.

Though war and tragedy fill this world - He keeps His peace.

Though your neighbor may vote wrong in the upcoming election - God keeps His peace.

God cares intentionally and emphatically…He keeps His peace. And we should carry this same disposition.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

This is a command statement - this is a factual statement Jesus is saying here. This is not a hopeful statement, this is a statement that declares the nature of God, the heart of God, and a the reward for those who keep this way of life.

What kind of purity is this? Is this a ritual that we’re supposed to do? Is there some kind of formula for this verse? No, it is simply a statement…blessed are the pure in heart.

Psalm 24:3–5 CSB

3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Having clean hands and a pure heart - that is - having and maintaining pure intentions of the heart focused on obedience to God and not trusting in an idol or swearing by a false god.

One thing we have to remember - and we will see as we go through the Sermon on the Mount - is that Jesus’s preaching and teachings are concerned with inward purity that animates outward acts of righteousness.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks - that’s behavior. Out of the abundance of the heart, one does.

Out of the abundance of one’s heart - as they see themselves, they do.

Out of the abundance of one’s heart - their understanding of God, reflects their character.

It only makes sense then that the one who is pure in heart - in Godly living and Godly intentions, focused on obedience to God - that one will see God.

Last week we talked about God’s core values - seeking justice, loving mercy, walking in humility.

An individual walking in such a state of heart - God can do some things with. God can work with this.

We see this in the life of Cornelius - a Roman Centurion, an individual that was by definition the antithesis of the Jews thought of a child of God - yet in Acts 10, God saw him as:

A devout man - fearing God, with his whole household Doing many charitable deeds in the Jewish community, for the Jewish community, And always prayed to God.

God saw this vilifiable, occupier of God’s people - and saw Cornelius’s heart was more intentional and burdened for God’s heart MORE than God’s chosen people.

Who can ascend God’s holy mountain? Those with clean hands and a pure heart. These are those who will see God.

That is our goal, Church. That is our singular focus in life. To be in the presence of God for eternity - and take as many people with us as we can.

And this is why Jesus came to this earth, and became Immanuel - that is, God with us.

Jesus, Immanuel, is the embodiment of the purity of God.

This is why when Jesus touches your life, the purity of God is imputed within you.

This is why blind see. This is why the lame walk. This is why the sick are healed. This is why the demonic must leave. Because the purity of God comes in and sets everything right.

Ask the unclean lepers Jesus healed in Matthew 8. Ask the woman healed of the issue of blood. Ask the Gentile, the outcast woman begging for Jesus to heal her daughter.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God

This verse here shows the byproduct of the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Again, righteousness is behavior - the opposite of righteousness is sin.

Those whose heart is pure, desires (hungers and thirsts) for acts of righteousness (and are filled)…

These ultimately result in peacemaking…

(Four examples - God and sinful man, two individuals warring against each other, married couple Chris and Ally , and one alone Diamond)

A peacemaker is not a commonly glorified position. The place its most highly looked upon is in scripture…”For they will be called children of God”.

This is what a peacemaker does - and why its not a glorified position…because it doesn’t bring attention to the peacemaker.

It’s much like intercessory prayer - ultimately it reflects Christ…

Peacemaking seeks Justice (without side-taking), loves mercy, and walks humbly out of the way.

Sometimes that’s helping people find compromise or negotiate, Sometimes that’s helping set a record straight, Sometimes that’s helping justice come to the offender, But then immediately coaches mercy into the equation… and gets out of the way.

Jesus gives a great template to follow for peacemaking:

Matthew 18:15–20 CSB

15 “If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. 17 If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

Peacemaking does not hold on to offense!

It seeks justice - that is resolution to whatever the offense.

It seeks mercy - where forgiveness takes precedence in the lives of the offended.

It gets out of the way - so the offense is abandoned, and the hero is Christ. They don’t bring attention to themselves, and they certainly don’t chase accolades for doing it.

A peacemaker reserves the glory of the victory of peace for the One who gives His peace because a peacemaker understands that they are not the Savior.

Peacemakers are agents of God’s peace…carriers and expenders of God’s peace, so that men and women can have peace with God, and with each other.

Jesus is going to reiterate this in Matthew 5:44-45

Matthew 5:44–45 CSB

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

But understand this:

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

God has called you into a position of ministering righteousness to people or individuals, someone will always have something to say.

For some people, you can never do enough right. It’ll never be enough.

And this is because there is a war going on beyond the realm of what we can see.

If people are still acting worldly, and the world is in them…they can’t fully recognize love and peace for what it really is - the extension of the Kingdom of heaven to them right now.

even those who call themselves Christians, and maybe even attend Church on a regular basis.

Here’s where we can find the biblical definition of this:

1 John 4:7–21 CSB

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

If people are still in the world, they are still influenced by and can be used by the devil to bring discord and strife to any and every situation.

One of the ways we identify the devil we read in Revelation 12:10

Revelation 12:10 CSB

10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.

Those who are in Christ - WILL be persecuted. “Because of righteousness”… there is a behavioral identity in how we carry ourselves - someone saved and redeemed.

The accuser is going to begin spouting the lies, bringing up the past, bringing up character flaws, …. all the while NEVER looking for peaceful resolution, and continuously hiding behind offense.

The mature believer who may have been offended recognizes this - and actively seeks to find resolution through peace.

A peacemaker, who sees this persecution, matures and learns to set the persecution behind them - why? because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Future tense, and present tense.

The eternal presence of God - who gives HIS peace

The resources of all of heaven being at their disposal

The family of God that comes with the Kingdom of heaven

Jesus goes on to say here:

Matthew 5:11–12 CSB

11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

2 Timothy 3:12 CSB

12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Persecution comes with the territory of a fallen world, ruled by Satan and his agenda of evil.

Persecution comes against the follower of Christ - and scripture says we should count it all joy when we must endure suffering…because we’re that much closer to knowing and understanding our Lord, as He gave all of Himself for us.

In that we are blessed. We are blessed to know Christ that much more intimately - and to much more know how He loves us.

We are blessed because the kingdom of heaven is ours, both the glory of what will be in future AND to have that now.

It’s like God is saying, I know people are giving you grief…but what I’ve given you is SO MUCH GREATER.

Closing

For the peacemakers in the house - keep giving glory to God, and thank Him for His peace.

For the persecuted in the house - remember, the kingdom of heaven is yours!

Galatians 6:9 CSB

9 Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.

Don’t give up. Jesus said there’s a reward for you, so keep persevering. Keep hoping. Keep expecting. Keep praying. Remain in Christ - He’ll remain in you. Trust in Him, and trust the process.

Scripture doesn’t say what the reward is, but I guarantee you it will be heavenly.