Happy Are The Undivided

Before we come to God’s Word, let us come to God in a moment of prayer. “God of all grace and truth, help us to see you with all our hearts and minds. Create in us a clean and pure heart. Amen”

I would like to read our reading and then look at two other translations of our text for today.

Matthew 5:1-12 The Beatitudes NIV

1. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2. Then he began to speak, 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 will be comforted.

5. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

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

9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.[i]

Matthew 5:8 The Message Bible

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”[ii]

Matthew 5:8 William Barclay Translation

“O the bliss of those whose motives are absolutely pure, for they will some day be able to see God”[iii]

In 1982 the Los Angeles Times carried the story of Anna Mae Pennica, a sixty-two-year-old woman who had been blind from birth. At age forty-seven, she married a man she met in a Braille class; and for the first fifteen years of their marriage he did the seeing for both of them until he completely lost his vision to retinitis pigmentosa. Mrs. Pennica had never seen the green of spring or the blue of a winter sky. Yet because she had grown up in a loving, supportive family, she never felt resentful about her handicap and always exuded a remarkably cheerful spirit. Then in October 1981 Dr. Thomas Pettit of the Jules Stein Eye Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles performed surgery to remove the rare congenital cataracts from the lens of her left eye—and Mrs. Pennica saw for the first time ever! The newspaper account does not record her initial response, but it does tell us that she found that everything was “so much bigger and brighter” than she ever imagined. While she immediately recognized her husband and others she had known well, other acquaintances were taller or shorter, heavier or skinnier than she had pictured them. Since that day Mrs. Pennica has hardly been able to wait to wake up in the morning, splash her eyes with water, put on her glasses, and enjoy the changing morning light. Her vision is almost 20/30—good enough to pass a driver’s test. Think how wonderful it must have been for Anna Mae Pennica when she looked for the first time at the faces she had only felt, or when she saw the kaleidoscope of a Pacific sunset or a tree waving its branches or a bird in flight. The gift of physical sight is wonderful. And the miracle of seeing for the first time can hardly be described.[iv]

This is what the sixth Beatitude is about—seeing God. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Jesus’ words tell us how to get 20/20 spiritual vision. If we want to see God, this is the greatest “HOW TO” text.

PURE IN HEART

The word that Jesus uses for “pure” is a fascinating word. The Greek word is “katharos” which in their culture was used to mean clean clothes rather than dirty clothes. Or how the grain is sifted or winnowed from the chaff. The basic meaning of the word means, “unmixed, unadulterated, unalloyed, real, genuine and undivided.” This verse could be translated, “Happy are those who hearts are undivided, for they will see God.”

The other night at our Band of Brothers, we had a great discussion on this, “Does faith come first to the mind or the heart.” What a great question. For some they replied that it was through the head to the heart and others said that it was the heart to the head. Of course, Norm, our resident theologian, said that it was both!

I think when Jesus gave us this Beatitude, or Blessing, He might have had in mind the idea of keeping our hearts undivided. I think that Jesus might have been reflecting on some of those Old Testament readings and reminding His listeners the importance of keeping their hearts undivided.

Maybe Jesus had in mind these passages:

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.” (Psalm 24:3-4)

“Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Psalm 86:11

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:25-26

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:11-14

I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.” Jeremiah 32:39-41

In Matthew 25, Jesus confronted the Pharisees. He had pretty hard words for them when he called them whitewashed tomb. Jesus told them that they would clean the outside of the cup, but the inside was filthy. The other day, while I was at breakfast with a group of men, I started to drink from the coffee cup and noticed that the inside still had some kind of film or slime in it. Of course, I notified my waitress and she took the old cup that was clean on the outside but dirty on the inside and gave me a new cup. I thought of this message. Jesus wants our heart to be clean on the inside if we would be able to see God!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones paraphrases it, “Blessed are those who are pure, not only on the surface but in the center of their being and at the source of every activity.”[v]

In the Bible the heart was the seat of all emotion and action. The heart was the control center for all that we do. I believe that Jesus is saying that we are not to have mixed motives or divided loyalties when it comes to God.

Of course, the looming questions are: How do we have a pure heart? How do we become perfect or holy as the Scriptures teach us? The truth is that none of us will perfectly meet any of these Beatitudes and that is why I called the entire message on the Beatitudes … Blessed and Broken. We can never be perfectly poor in spirit. We can never perfectly mourn for our sin. We can never perfectly be meek or hunger and thirst and be merciful.

So what? All we can do is throw ourselves on the grace of God found in Jesus.

FOR THEY WILL SEE GOD

In his book, “The problem of Pain,” C.S. Lewis said, “It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.” This is the radical truth of Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes.

The sixth Beatitude tells us that the purer our hearts become, the more we will see of God in this life. The more our hearts are focused on God, absorbed with him, concentrated on his being, freed from distractions, sincere—single, the more we will see him. As our hearts become purer, the more the Word lives and the more creation speaks. Even the adverse circumstances of life seem to sharpen our vision of God.

How do we see God? We see God in nature, we see God in creation, we see God in others, we see God in our circumstance, and we see God in God’s Word. This past summer my wife and oldest grandson and I went to Montana to see our son and his family. We stayed in a cabin along a river. Our host took us fly-fishing. In our walks to the river, he pointed out different plants along the path. He had an eye for all that God had created. To be honest with you, without our host, I would have missed a whole lot. I would have thought many of the plants were weeds. I think we are like that; we need someone to fine tune our vison so that we can see God better.

I use an app on my phone called “stargazer” and when I go out at night I can point my phone to the sky and it will tell me which star that I am looking at and the different formations of the stars. I am a history buff and I find it amazing that an astronomer could guide a ship across the ocean and bring it safely into harbor all by looking at the stars. It says in the Bible that God has created all the stars and given them a name. How do we see God? Helen Keller was asked once, “Isn’t it terrible to be blind?” To which she responded, “Better to be blind and see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.”[vi]

So What?

What do all these ancient words mean to us today in the 21st Century? How can we live out the beatitudes? The irony of Mrs. Pennica’s “miracle,” according to Dr. Pettit, was that “surgical techniques available as far back as the 1940s could have corrected her problem.” Mrs. Pennica lived forty of her sixty-two sightless years needlessly blind. The truth is that the answer to our seeing God has existed for thousands of years through God’s grace and love. The Bible teaches us that when we turn to God’s living Word and ask Jesus into our hearts, we are given a new heart. Our old heart of stone has been replaced by a new heart. When we seek God with all our heart, the promise is that we will find Him and see Him.

In the fall of 1976 I started reading my bible every day. I read five Psalms and one chapter of Proverbs. It took me 15 minutes and then I was off to work at the tire store. One day I went in to clean the rest room at work. It was the fall of 1993. There was a note on the sink, “Dear Store Manager, God wanted me to tell you that you need to follow Him. No matter what, you are supposed to follow Him.” I had been feeling the urging of the Holy Spirit to go to seminary but had planned on going four years later after our youngest had graduated high school. I had visited several seminaries and had made my plans. I had made a deal with God: no scholarship, I’d go to seminary after 1997. If I was offered a scholarship, I’d go when that happened. It was just a few weeks after I found this note that I received the phone call that changed my life: Dave, we’d like to offer you a scholarship. I was enrolled in seminary in the fall of 1994.

Here’s my point. When I look back over my life, I find I can see God in nature—that’s almost a no brainer. I can see God when I read the living words of life here in my Bible, but I can also see God in other people. I’ll never know the person who left that note but what I do know is that God used that person to help me see God better.

I also see God in YOU. I see God working in your lives. I see God in your love for your family and for others. A few weeks ago, I moved. I saw God in the 15 people who showed up at 6 a.m. to help move us because it was going to be 110 that day! I get to see God in you just about every single day!

Here’s my final “So What?” Do you want to see God? Read your word. Soak your heart in 5 minutes of a chapter. I can promise you that, in time, your heart is going to be like Ann Marie Pennica’s eyes. Your heart will have a brand, new app like my Star Gazer only this app won’t just help you cross oceans—it will lead you safely home—to heaven—where you will finally see God in all His glory.

Today we come to this table to celebrate the sacrament of communion. It is my prayer that we all will seek God with all of our hearts. The more we seek God, the more we will see Him. Hear what Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;” Job 19:25

Let us pray …

The Seed Christian Fellowship

Rancho Cucamonga, California 91701

www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

Pastor Dave Peters

[i] The Holy Bible: New International Version. (1984). (Mt 5:1-12). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[ii] Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (Mt 5:8). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

[iii] Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of Matthew (Third Ed., p. 124). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

[iv] Hughes, R. K. (2001). The sermon on the mount: the message of the kingdom (p. 53). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

[v] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1959), p. 111.[v]

[vi] Hughes, R. K. (2001). The sermon on the mount: the message of the kingdom (p. 57). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

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