Matthew 5:1-12, The King’s Citizens (Part 2)

Introduction

Good morning! Please open your Bible to Matthew 5. We’re continuing our study of Matthew’s Gospel, specifically the Sermon on the Mount. Last week we considered the first few verses of the Beatitudes. Lord willings, this morning, we will finish looking at those. As always, I will first read the passage––Matthew 5:1-12. I ask that you follow along with me. Then we’ll pray and ask the LORD to bless our time together in His Word.

READ MATTHEW 5:1-12

PRAY

As I was prepping this week I couldn’t help but think about the importance of recipes. Some of us use them. Others among us don’t. Some types of recipes can be more loosely followed. Even substitutions can be used. Others must be more rigidly followed in order to achieve the desired outcome. For instance, you can get a bit more loose and creative with typical meals. Adding ingredients according to taste. But with other recipes, like baking, more precision is necessary if you want things to turn out right.

How your baked goods turn out will tell you how you did following the recipe. We learned this recently at our house while trying to bake brownies. If you forget eggs in the batter, the resulting bake will be dry, dense, crumbly, and flat. If you forget the oil, you’ll experience a similar result. And of course, who among us hasn’t found out the hard way that greasing the pan is essential or else dish duty will be a lot more difficult cleaning the pan. Every ingredient is necessary in order to have the desired outcome.

What does that have to do with our study of the beatitudes? Well, the characteristics of the one who is “blessed” are essential in the makeup of that person. The “blessed” one has all of these characteristics. Characteristics given by God as a result of the new birth. Those born again by the Spirit and the subsequent indwelling of the Spirit bring about all of these ingredients, characteristics, or marks, of those who are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. This is what it looks like to be a Christ-follower. This is what it looks like for Christ to be formed in you.

That is an important reminder for all of us as we finish looking at the beatitudes this morning, because the “blessed” are those people who are able to live out the life described throughout the Sermon on the Mount. These are foundational to all that follows in the weeks ahead. As Christ is increasingly formed in us, according to these characteristics, we will increasingly display the kind of kingdom life set forth in Christ’s teaching. We will be the kind of people who will be both salt and light in the world for the glory of Christ and the advance of His kingdom.

MAIN POINT––Know what it is to experience God’s blessing and what kind of person experiences God’s blessing.

Brief Review

Before we dive into where we left off, I think it is important to briefly review what we saw together last week. One reason to do so is to reiterate the point that all of these characteristics come together to make up a whole. These are not a random listing of characteristics represented among the masses of the King’s citizens––some are poor in spirit, others mourn, and others are peacemakers. No, these are characteristics of every single one of the King’s Citizens. They are parts that make up the whole together. The “blessed” are all of these.

That leads us to remember what it is to be “blessed” in the way Jesus speaks of it here. He is describing the person who is truly blessed. The person who bears out, no doubt to varying degrees, all of these characteristics. Though the word could be translated “happy” that doesn’t fully communicate the depth of what it means to be “blessed.” Such a word in our context is far to superficial and subjective. But the truly “blessed” person finds a deeper sense of joy, no matter the circumstances, because of who He belongs to and whose care he lives under.

To be “blessed,” as Jesus describes here, more significant than “happy” is to live under God’s smile. To enjoy God’s favor as He makes His face to shine upon you. Such a person knows what it is to experience the joy of the LORD and His salvation, no matter their circumstances or station in life. Even when the winds and waves of life in this fallen world crash all around you, you know peace like a river because you belong to the One who commands the wind and waves and holds you fast. That is what it is to be “blessed.”

We saw first, that this “blessed” person, living as one of the King’s citizens, is first and foremost “poor in spirit.” Which is simply to say that he, or she, is one who recognizes their own spiritual poverty. Having encountered the holiness and righteousness of God, the “blessed” have come to understand their moral bankruptcy. They have nothing of merit in and of themselves.

From that, having recognized their spiritual poverty, they have the right emotional response. They do not work harder to try and fill their spiritual accounts as if to somehow merit God’s favor. They do not throw up their hands as if to say, “all is lost––eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” No, they mourn their spiritual depravity. But it is not an endless mourning. It is mourning that leads to comfort. True, lasting comfort that comes to them by the grace and mercy of God who looks on them with compassion in their helpless state.

Then finally, the “blessed”––those who are poor in spirit and mourn––are characterized by “meekness.” Having seen their own depravity and mourned it, they are made to be “gentle” toward others. Not in the sense of being weak. Meekness is not weakness. It takes great strength to demonstrate true meekness as was demonstrated by the LORD Jesus in laying down His own life for sinners on the cross. The “meek” use their strength not for their own good, but for the good of others while entrusting themselves to the LORD, our faithful Judge.

The People Who Are Blessed (cont.)

That brings us to where we are for this morning as we turn our attention to the remaining characteristics that make up the “blessed” who live under the rule and reign of King Jesus. The “blessed”––those who are poor in spirit, mourn, and meek are known for other characteristics.

The Hungry and Thirsty

They are a people known to have a certain kind of appetite. They “hunger and thirst for righteousness. When approaching the potluck table arrayed with all kinds of desires and values––fame, fortune, accomplishments, notoriety, and respectability––they are the ones who know which course will truly satisfy them. They reach for the bread that will never leave them hungry; the water which will never leave them thirsty. Amidst a world that offers many differing options to try and satisfy them, they go for what will truly satisfy the longing of their soul.

They have the right appetite and look to satisfy it rightly. This begins, first and foremost, with a hunger for God Himself. They cry out, like the Psalmist––

Psa. 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

Psa. 42:2 My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

All because they know that God is the One who “satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:9). He calls out to the “blessed” saying––

Is. 55:2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

It is there, listening to God, we find that our hungry and thirsty souls will truly be satisfied. I don’t mean by some kind of mystical hearing. God has given us His Word wherein He reveals Himself and His ways. In hungering for Him, we hunger and thirst to hear from Him. To come to His Word. To have it and know it and cherish it and love it and be shaped by it. This is how precious God’s Word is to God’s people. So much so that it is a great judgment when God withholds His Word from His people, as we see in Amos 8, where he warned of His coming judgment––

Amos 8:11 ¶ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,

“when I will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the LORD.

The “blessed” know the precious riches of knowing more of God revealed in His Word. It is there we learn of His righteousness, imputed to us by faith. Knowing our spiritual poverty we cast ourselves upon Him and His mercy as starved beggars and He clothes us in His righteousness. But more than that, from there he begins to mold and shape us into His very likeness. Such that His righteousness that clothes us outwardly begins to transform us inwardly. A righteousness that He begins to produce in us. A righteousness we long to see in the world around us.

So thorough is the work and transformation, that when we try to satisfy our hunger and thirst elsewhere it leaves us feeling ill and unsatisfied. Years ago, Jamie and I tried the Whole30 diet, which restricted our consumption of many things we typically ate. We stayed true to it for a month as prescribed. At the end, we indulged in some pizza. Having eaten a purely healthy diet for 30 days straight, our appetites had changed and our bodies' response to certain foods had changed. The pizza didn’t taste as good as it once did and it left us feeling sick.

So it is for the “blessed.” We hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God. The only righteousness that will truly satisfy our longing. And when we occasionally veer off to other tables for satisfaction, those other tables never truly satisfy. They even make us sick, graciously reminding us to come back to the table where we will truly be satisfied.

The Merciful

We also learn next, that the “blessed” are merciful. Quite simply, they are those who are full of compassion towards others. “They pity all who are suffering either from sin or sorrow” J.C. Ryle says, “and are tenderly desirous to make their suffering less; they are full of good works and endeavour to do good.” I love the way Ryle defines that so carefully. Notice he mentions that the compassion is stirred by two causes of suffering––sin and sorrow.

The “blessed” who are merciful are moved to compassion when they witness others in suffering because of their sin. It is in being moved to such compassion that they share the one thing that can alleviate such suffering––the gospel. Having come to grips with our own impoverished spirit and having experienced the mercy of God in Christ, we show them Christ in word and deed, calling them to repentance and faith where they can experience God’s mercy just as we have.

More than that, we are given perhaps no greater opportunity to be merciful than those moments where we are wronged and sinned against ourselves. In a world dominated by cancel culture and vengeance, the King’s citizens are those willing and able to show mercy toward those who wrong us. To feel compassion for them and be eager to show mercy rather than hold a grudge. All because we have been shown that kind of mercy in Christ.

With that, the “blessed” are also moved to compassion when they see those suffering under sorrow. Such sorrow––whether physical suffering in the lack of life’s basic necessities or sickness––is a result of sin’s effect on this world. Because of our sin, the world experiences the curse of the Fall and is filled with all kinds of suffering and sorrow. Thus, the “blessed” being merciful, are on the lookout for how they can alleviate such suffering. Both works of mercy are part and parcel of life and ministry in the kingdom.

Now notice what it does not say. It does not say, “blessed are those who give mercy, for they shall receive mercy.” In other words, this isn’t transactional. As if to say, if you give mercy, then you will receive mercy on the last day because of what you did. It says, “blessed are the merciful.” It is a characteristic of the “blessed.” They don’t merely just give, or show, mercy. They do that, but it flows from who they are inwardly. They are merciful, and as a consequence show mercy toward others because they have already been shown mercy and been made merciful.

Don’t think that I’m being arbitrary in that distinction, I assure you it matters. We see this illustrated so well in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. We learn of a king who desired to settle accounts with one of his servants who owed him an insurmountable debt he couldn’t pay. When he was about to be sold into slavery for the debt and pleaded for mercy, the king, out of pity for him, showed mercy and forgave his debt. So surely this man, having experienced such abundant mercy would be ready to do the same, right?

Unfortunately, the parable continues with this unforgiving servant finding one who owed him a debt. But compared to the debt he owed the king, this man’s debt was very small. He should have been able to forgive the man’s debt, but he didn’t. Instead, he imprisoned him until he could pay the debt. And when the king found out what had happened––

“You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,[l] until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:32-35

The wicked servant who failed to show mercy, in turn, revealed his heart had not truly been changed. He exposed his own merciless heart that had not truly taken hold of the mercy shown toward him. The same is true of us when we withhold mercy from others. Only a heart that has truly been transformed by the mercy of God in Christ can show that kind of mercy toward others. We know the insurmountable eternal debt we owe that was canceled in Christ on the cross, and we look with the same compassion toward others.

The Pure in Heart

Moving on from there we see that the “blessed” are “pure in heart.” Their purity is not an outward purity, like a cup that is clean on the outside while still filled with dirt and grime on the inside. They are those who do not conform to the norms of Christ’s kingdom outwardly, while still remaining ravenous wolves on the inside. They are those who have been made pure in heart through the regenerating work of the Spirit. It is a purity that originates in the most inward part of our being and then works its way outward in our life and ministry.

This is in stark contrast to the Pharisees whom Jesus sharply rebuked for their hypocrisy. We see this very prominently in Matthew 23 where we find Jesus pronouncing seven woes against the Pharisees for their incredible hypocrisy. Among those woes, he rebuked them for trying to look good outwardly, while inwardly being full of greed and self-indulgence (Matt. 23:25). They are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside, while on the inside they are full of rot and death like the bones of dead people and all uncleanness (Matt. 25:27).

They do all kinds of things outwardly and publicly to be seen by men that perhaps will earn them praise among men. They care more about saving face and looking good, rather than being humbled and contrite before God, dependent upon Him and His mercy. But the pure in heart are those who do the right things without anyone knowing about it––praying, giving, fasting, etc.––all from a pure heart without any motivation to earn the applause of others. We’ll see more of this in the LORD’s teaching on things like anger and lust in the coming weeks.

They are those who live inwardly and in secret the way they present themselves publicly. Though they stumble and fall this side of eternity, there isn’t a cover-up to pretend. They are honest about their failure, or better yet, their own poverty of spirit. They walk uprightly by faith and go to the LORD, confessing their sins and seeking His cleansing power in a life of repentance. Such are the pure in heart, who will one day have the tremendous blessing to see God and be made like Him when they see Him.

The Peacemakers

The “blessed” are also those who are peacemakers. Though the meaning may seem plain, I think we get a greater glimpse of what it is to be peacemakers when we consider the blessing that follows––“for they shall be called sons of God.” The “blessed” are those who show themselves all the more to bear the likeness of their Father in heaven, the ultimate Peacemaker Himself.

Consider, beloved, that you at one time were at enmity with God. Because of your sin and rebellion against Him, you were alienated from Him. You were like the kings of the earth in Psalm 2 who rage and plot in vain. Who set themselves and take counsel together against the LORD. Who seek to cast off His bonds and live to yourself apart from and in defiance against His rightful authority over you. We all were once like the people of Israel in Judges who “did what was right in our own eyes.”

But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. He sent His only unique Son into the world to save sinners like me and you. He showed His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Having been justified by faith “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). And as a consequence of this vertical reconciliation with God we also have been reconciled horizontally to one another. It is on the basis of God’s peacemaking and reconciling work that His children, the “blessed,” are also peacemakers.

We seek to reconcile lost sinners with God. Not in the way Christ did. His work was unique. Only He could atone for the sins of others. We cannot replicate that work. Nevertheless, we proclaim His gospel, calling a lost world to repent and to believe in Him. We plead with others to be reconciled to God in Christ. And, on the basis of that work, we seek to maintain unity in the bond of peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

When there is a fracture in our unity we are not content to let it fester. We are not content to grumble or complain against one another under the guise of venting or getting things off our chest. Where there is tension amongst ourselves we relentlessly pursue resolution––forgiving and seeking forgiveness. We pray without ceasing, seeking the LORD and asking for His aid in maintaining this peace with one another. Then, outside the bounds of this covenant community in Christ, we seek to live at peace with all others, insofar as it depends upon us.

Now, don’t be misled. That doesn’t mean peace at all costs. It doesn’t mean we make peace with the world––those still at enmity with God––on their terms by cozying up to them. We are to live peaceably, but not at the expense of compromising the truth of God’s Word. We are content to be seen as nothing in the eyes of the world as long as we maintain peace with God and one another in faithfulness to our Father in heaven. That much is clear in the final beatitude.

The Persecuted

The “blessed” are persecuted for righteousness sake. Even as we seek to live peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way, we nevertheless put ourselves at enmity with the world. It will happen naturally. You won’t have to seek it out, nor should you. All who desire to live upright and godly lives according to the values of our King will be persecuted for the righteousness that ought to characterize our very lives.

But rather than seeing that as a curse that leads us to despair and doubt, it is to be a source of great comfort and blessing that leads us to rejoice. Rejoice, not because we are masochists who love to suffer. I’ve said this many times before. We are not to rejoice because we love the suffering. We rejoice because we know what our suffering in righteousness says about us. It demonstrates our union with Christ and with His people.

We see the latter point, union with God’s people, here in these verses. He says in verse 12–– “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Suffering for the LORD and His righteous ways has always been a characteristic mark of God’s people. Such that, when you suffer in this way, you are suffering the way that Isaiah suffered. The way that Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, suffered. The way that Daniel and Ezekiel and so many others suffered. Even more, you are suffering as the LORD did.

Clearly Peter was listening and understood this. It’s why he’s able to write in 1 Peter 4:12-14––

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.

This is the final characteristic of the King’s citizens that binds them all together. They all build to this. Those who know their impoverished spirit and mourn it. Those who are meek. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Those who are merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers will be persecuted for the sake of Christ and His righteousness. It will come from all directions. From those you expect it and even from those you least expect it.

Such persecution will come from a world that openly defies the living God and His Word. Even mocking it and you for believing it. But it will even sometimes come from those who outwardly claim to believe what you believe. Many a nominal Christians pay lip service to loving God and His Word. That is until you slowly begin to open the word to them and call them to order their lives accordingly. You come across something, some demand of the risen Lord Jesus, that rubs them the wrong way. “You don’t really believe THAT do you?!”

I’ve experienced it and I know many of you have as well. And when you do experience such treatment and hostility you can rejoice. Not only because of what it reveals about you and who you belong to. But because of the blessings that are yours because of these characteristics that mark you. If this describes you, you are blessed. To such belongs the kingdom of heaven.

Conclusion

All that we’ve seen these past two weeks, as we’ve considered the beatitudes together, are a portrait of those who live under the saving rule and reign of King Jesus. This is what it looks like to be one of the King’s citizens. Everything else that follows in the Sermon on the Mount flows out of these realities. They are the marks that make this kind of kingdom life possible by God’s grace through faith and His Spirit at work in us. And so, as we’ll see next week, these are the kinds of people who will have an impact for good on the world around us as salt and light.

Know what it is to experience God’s blessing and what kind of person experiences God’s blessing.