The Pursuit of Happiness- Part 3 (Matthew 5:9-12)
Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Sermon
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Key Passage
Key Passage
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
and he began to teach them. He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Introduction
Introduction
We are entitling this series, “The Pursuit of Happiness”
The Sermon on the Mount was Jesus’ first recorded significant sermon, early in his ministry.
It was His introduction to a new way of living
It was an introduction to the Kingdom of Heaven
It was an introduction to discipleship (or life in the Kingdom of Heaven)
It was an introduction to a ministry that would ultimately change the world by changing the hearts and lives of those who would follow.
This is the Pursuit of Happiness because Jesus begins this sermon by highlighting the word “Blessed”.
Blessed means “happy”. I know the temptation to make this word the “blessed by God” type of “bless.
But this is a unique word that literally means “happy”
Then Jesus goes through a series of sometimes confusing statements that sound different from any other kingdom.
Most kingdoms would be about building everything up to greatness.
This kingdom sounds different.
He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”
This is backwards from every other kingdom.
Now we might try to approach this with a sense of formula.
“OK, so all I have to do is cry a lot, be super sad, and convey to the world that I am worthless and I will be great in the kingdom of Heaven.”
This is not formulaic.
All of these statements reflect a heart change.
Here is the thing, none of us can change our own hearts.
Here is the condition of our heart apart from Jesus
Our world will tell us to follow our hearts. Those are fine sounding words with destructive results.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
From our own hearts come every form of wickedness and rebellion against God’s order in our world.
To be a disciple of Jesus means that we have a new heart. We are alive in Christ.
To step into this passage from outside of the Kingdom of God, you may hear these things as steps to enter the Kingdom.
In reality, all of these beatitudes demonstrate the joy of a new heart within us that only comes from Jesus.
And when we turn our backs on our old heart and our old ways of living in the darkness, we find joy by setting our hearts on the things that matter, not on the things of this world.
There has to be a fundamental change within us to embrace the life that the beatitudes call us to.
Without Jesus, these are a recipe for misery.
But with Jesus, these are what show a dependence on Him, and not on ourselves.
The true source of Joy in our lives comes from Jesus and living lives that are aligned with His.
We would never find joy in these unless our hearts are changed and our eyes are opened.
We will see in these last three beatitudes the highest calling as His disciples
The calling to identity and what our identity means.
Preaching Time
Preaching Time
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
We move on into our next passage about being peacemakers
In each one of these statements, there is an “our part” and there is a “God’s part”
We can look and know that God’s part will be done
However, there is a part that we must understand as “our part”
Our part will almost always be contrary to our human sinful nature
But it will be in line with Jesus model for living during His ministry
This beatitude is especially meaningful because of the “God’s part” of its statement.
Let’s begin there:
Children of God
literally “Sons of God”
We will be called “children of God”
Literally, the language used here is “sons of God.”
At first glance, we might think that this is a statement of Salvation
That all we have to do is keep the peace around us and somehow by that act, we have salvation
Scripture is very clear that Salvation comes through faith in the work of Jesus Christ at the cross.
This statement that we will be called “children of God” is an identification of what we will look like
We often use language like “He’s a chip off of the ol’ block”
When we say that, we aren’t saying that person is now adopted into the family of that person
We are saying that they look or act a lot like their dad.
A few weeks ago, I shared a story about buying penny candy from the gas station and eating 500 pieces of candy and ruining my appetite.
We relayed that with spoiling our appetite for righteousness. What are we spoiling our appetite with?
What I didn’t realize was the people that came up to me after church and say, “So that’s where JJ gets it from.”
I guess in that regard, he was a chip off the ol block.
People seeing him eating candy and doing goofy things like that would say, “He’s a lot like his dad”
And they would be right!
JJ didn’t earn the right to be called my son by eating enough candy in his childhood.
JJ was identified as my son by the similar loves of candy in our childhood.
This passage is saying the same thing, except with being a peacemaker.
We don’t earn our merit or status with God by being peacemakers.
We allow our hearts to be changed and we are identified as “Children of God”
God is a peacemaker.
He is the ultimate in being a peacemaker.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
That last verse shows the heart of God
Because of sin, we are at odds with God
There is conflict between the holy and the unholy.
But God mad Jesus to be sin on our behalf so we can become the righteousness of God.
Is there any greater statement in all of the Scriptures that demonstrate the peacemaking nature of God?
The greatest enmity that has existed in all of creation is put to peace through Jesus Christ.
The two beatitudes before this are about showing mercy and about how the pure in heart will see God.
There is no purity of heart without the work of Jesus on the cross.
And the mercy that was given to us is expected to be given to others.
Peacemaking is very special to the heart of God
It is the core of relationship.
This is why we are given the ministry of reconciliation.
What is reconciliation?
God’s reconciliation is not counting peoples sins against them.
This is the message of reconciliation that we have as well.
They need God.
We become people of peace.
People of relationship
We demonstrate love and reconciliation hoping to point people to the ministry of reconciliation that God calls us to.
We cannot reconcile people to God. That is His part
We must reconcile to one another while pointing to God.
When we do this, we are seen as the “Children of God”
We look like Jesus looked.
This is the very idea behind discipleship
There was a phrase used in the rabbi/disciple relationship: “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi”
The idea was that you walked so close to your rabbi, that the dust that he kicked up covered you.
When we follow closely to Jesus, we understand His peace and we become peacemakers.
It is a beautiful family trait that is present in all of God’s church.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We are called to be peacemakers, but will we be able to make peace with everyone?
No. Was Jesus a peacemaker when He was here? His whole purpose of coming was a mission of peacemaking.
But there were still people who rejected His peace.
Jesus came to offer peace. Some received it. Others rejected it, remained in their sin and remained at odds with the nature of God.
Ultimately, this led to a very difficult life for Jesus
He was rejected, harassed, beaten and ultimately crucified.
Why was He rejected and persecuted? Because of righteousness.
It wasn’t because he was a jerk.
It wasn’t because he had his own opinions of things.
It was because He revealed the true nature of God to the world and the world rejected the light because they loved the darkness.
This is what Christian talked about last week.
This line breaks down very interesting.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness
Just a couple of weeks ago, Jesus said this:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Jesus said, that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled.
Filled with what? Righteousness.
When we prepare our hearts for righteousness and not the things of this world, God will grow within us a righteousness that looks like Jesus
But now we see that this righteousness has consequences.
Even good things have consequences in life.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We take that righteousness that brings us joy, and it bears the fruit of rejection in our lives.
We talked about this earlier, but that righteousness isn’t simply the result of making better decisions in our lives.
There is a part of our growth as disciples that is denying ourselves and taking up the cross and obeying Jesus.
We intentionally must live lives of obedience, even when we don’t want to.
But the other side of obedience is maturity
God brings maturity as we seek to know Him more.
This is sanctification.
We have tried to give sanctification in a number of vivid ways recently
Lazarus with his burial clothes
Salt as a preservative
What meat looks like that isn’t preserved
In the eyes of God, it is good, pleasing and perfect
In the eyes of the world, it is a rejection of everything the world has built.
There is still enmity between the world and God. However, now we are on the side of God, whereas before, we were on the side of the world.
There will be persecution that comes with maturity and righteousness
Persecution comes in a lot of different sources:
Being left out of a group chat all the way to death.
No one wants to be rejected. But when they reject us, we know they are rejecting the Jesus who is shaping us like Him.
To those who are persecuted for righteousness, they will receive the Kingdom of Heaven
This is the exact same thing that the poor in Spirit get!
So who gets the Kingdom? The poor in Spirit? Or the Persecuted?
Yes
This isn’t multiple doors into heaven
This is finding something worth giving everything up for.
That is what it means to be poor in Spirit. We have nothing to offer, because we have given it all up to follow Jesus.
When we walk that out to the logical conclusion, there is rejection at the end of that road.
This is our reminder that the Kingdom of Heaven is worth it.
You wouldn’t be persecuted if you weren’t poor in Spirit
This brings all of these concepts to full circle.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This sounds like the same thing as the last beatitude.
It kind of is. But this is more intentional and personal.
Jesus knew that people wouldn’t just reject them. But Jesus knew that they would be hunted because of the Kingdom of God.
When this happens, Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad”
Rejoice means, “Have joy”
Be glad means, “Have a ton of joy”
This is the peak of happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven
When you entire life has been laid down and all that is left is the struggles, persecution and rejection of this world.
That is when you have made it!
This verse literally says, “Happy is the person who is rejected. They are happy on top of happy because they know then entire struggle is worth it!
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is where I want to rest for the conclusion of our passage today.
This all sounds so backwards. So different.
It doesn’t sound like Jesus is even trying to get people to join the Kingdom of God.
He could have said, “There will be some benefit to you in this world.”
But He doesn’t.
I want to navigate this thought in this way.
Do you really believe that Heaven and Hell are real?
Like do you really, really, really believe it.
Not in concept or idea.
But Heaven is a real place and real people go there
Hell is a real place of eternal punishment and real people go there
And what we do in our lives impacts that eternal reality.
I think that if we really believed it, it would change the way we look at our lives in this world.
In fact, do I really believe that what I believe is real?
Do I really believe:
...that I have laid everything down?
...that my sin separates me from God?
...that I must surrender all to Jesus’ control?
...that I ought only desire God’s righteousness?
poor in spirit
mourn
meek
hunger and thirst for righteousness
Do I really believe:
...that the mercy I show is the mercy I will receive?
...that joy comes from being both feet in the Kingdom?
...that my ministry is reconciliation and peace?
merciful
pure in heart
peacemakers
Do I really believe:
...that to suffer is the greatest joy?
persecuted
Heaven is real. hell is real. Eternity is real.
Sin separates us from God and it is a chasm that we cannot cross.
We are at odds with Him
But because of His great love for us, Jesus went to the cross and made a way.
There is a hope for my life. There is a purpose
I am loved. I can know the God I was created to be in relationship with
Only by knowing and loving God can a future with Him compel us to leave all this life behind and find joy in the sacrifice of this life in the building of the next.
Declarative Gospel (Gospel proper)
The Kingdom of God is here!
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and the King of Kings
He died on the cross paying the penalty for our sin
He resurrected from the dead giving us an eternal hope
Imperative Gospel (Our response to the declaration)
Believe
Follow Me (Matthew 4:19)
Repent & be baptized (sanctification)
Real Life in Action:
Head- What does sacrifice mean? Is it worth it?
Heart- Ask God to reveal in our heart what hasn’t been given to Him.
Hands- Repent
