Matthew 5 1-10
Epiphany 4
Matthew 5:1-12
A Mountain-full of blessings.
Intro. The words of our beloved Lord Jesus recorded in Matthew 5, are often called the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount. These words are familiar to all Christians, and even the secular world recognizes them when they are spoken or read. Even so, as familiar as these words are to us they are often misunderstood. As a young man I often would look at this list of blessings and pick one or two that I could identify with. On days that I was feeling gentle I saw myself as the meek one, and I looked forward to inheriting the earth (whatever that meant). On other days I saw myself as a peace maker and I looked forward to being called one of the sons of God. But I never saw all the blessings in this sermon as being my blessings. Some Christian teachers see the Beatitudes as a model for Christian living, and perhaps rightly so. These are the commands of Christ. The only problem with this is that isn’t long and the blessings of Christ may appear to become a burden that is to heavy to bear. Its goals become unattainable. Who can do all that is asked? Who can carry the burden and who will reap the rewards. Now I have come to the understanding that all these blessings are meant for me. I want you to come to the same understanding.
I. The Nature of the Blessings.
A) The people of our culture look at people that exhibit the qualities listed in Matthew as unfortunate and weak. They do not consider them blessed by God. This Sunday the Super Bowl will be played. Can you imagine one of the teams made up of the people God considers blessed – poor in spirit, mourning, meek and so on… Certainly a team like this would be laughed off the field. For the most part these are not desirable qualities according to the world whether you are a football player or a regular person. Even the qualities of mercy and peacemaking are associated with weakness. Self-fulfillment, self-reliability, self-help are the names of the game in our society. There is no room or need for the help of God.
B) Our God shows His strength in the things the world considers weak. In Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians he tells us that God chooses the foolish things of the world so that people who think they are wise are shamed. God chooses the weak things to shame the strong. And HE chooses the despised and lowly to show the worthlessness of what the world highly regards and esteems.
II. We cannot earn God’s Blessings through our actions. We may find ourselves in a peculiar position of trying to earn God’s blessings on our own. But all our attempts will be met with defeat. Knowing how God works and how He exhibits His strength we might be tempted to acquire the qualities that God finds desirable. We may find ourselves trying to be more meek, more merciful, more pure in heart so that God will bless us. This might seem right to us, after all, aren’t these commands coming from Christ? He is teaching us, as He taught His disciples, how to live a Christian life and what that involves. Here we may fall into the trap of serving ourselves and trying to earn our own blessings. This is not What Christ intended. All our attempts to earn God’s favor on our own are doomed to failure. It is not in our sinful nature to choose to be meek, merciful, to hunger for righteousness or to suffer for Christ’s sake.
III. In our Defeat we see victory in Christ alone.
A) It is in our own inability and failure to comply with God’s commands that we become victorious and blessed. Our victory is won for us solely by Christ’s life death and resurrection. In our defeat we see him as the source of all our blessings which he freely gives to us who are called by His name. Our blessings have been won for us by Christ’s apparent defeat in his suffering and death. Where is the strength of God? It is found in Jesus, who for us was pour in spirit, having no pride or self determined will and only doing the will of his Father. God’s strength is found in Christ’s mourning for sinners and the fallen state of man and their suffering. It is found in Christ’s meekness, quietly suffering to his death. It is by his hunger and his thirst and his own self disregard that we have obtained righteousness. And he has filled us with more than food for our bodies, he has given us his own body to eat and blood to drink to sustain us both physically and spiritually. It is Christ’s mercy that has been brought about by the spilling of his blood. God sees our hearts as pure because his heart was pure for us. We are again at peace with God on his account alone. This is the strength of God as it is written “ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”.
B) In our defeat of ourselves and in the victory of Christ we are able to live as Christ commanded. We do not endeavor to earn God’s blessing. Instead, we act as the blessed people of God in response to His grace. By the power of the Holy Spirit we do become poor in spirit, mourn, become meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, have mercy, are pure in heart and become true peacemakers offering the world reconciliation in Christ Jesus. All God’s blessings are ours. These same blessings God offers to all the world through his Church. This is the message that we must proclaim.