Matthew 5 1-12 Pastors Version
All Saints Day
Matthew 5:1-12
November 2, 2003
“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. There is a story that is told about a young child. After hearing the beatitudes the child was asked which of the things mentioned would she most like to have. The child’s response was “a pure heart.” When asked why she said, “if my heart was pure, I believe I would have all the other virtues. As a young man I too, 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 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 felt like I possessed all these virtues or saw all the blessings as being my blessings.
Some Christian teachers see the Beatitudes as a model for Christian living. After all, these are the commands of Christ, aren't they? The only problem with this is that isn’t long and the blessings of Christ may appear to become a burden that is too heavy to bear. Its goals become unattainable. Who has all the virtues and characteristics that Christ speaks about? Who can claim to be poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker, or persecuted for righteousness sake, for Jesus sake? Who can boast of these virtues and then lay claim to the blessings of God?
I. The Virtues and Blessings?
A. These Virtues are considered weaknesses in our culture.
The people of our culture look at the virtues Jesus lists in Matthew, and the people that have them, as unfortunate and weak. Oh, they may pay these virtues lip service. They may speak of them as ideals that should be respected. They may talk about how wonderful Jesus’ words are. In reality they do not consider these virtues desirable. As our country waged war on Sadam Hussein and his oppressive regime, could you imagine our military personnel exhibiting the virtues that God blesses - poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry and so on… Consider and compare - poor in spirit versus spirited, mourning versus joyful and triumphant, meek versus strong. Certainly a military like this would be laughed and chased out of the country. Even the qualities of mercy and peacemaking are often associated with weakness. After all what is more important the ability to make peace or wage war? Some people would argue that you can’t have one without the other. Whether a person is in the military or a civilian person, the world does not consider people with these virtues as blessed by God. From a worldly point of view this is understandable. Martin Luther writes, “Friendly and sweet as this sermon is for Christians, who are His disciples, just so irksome and unbearable it is for the Jews and their great saints. From the very beginning He hits them hard with these words, rejecting and condemning their teaching, preaching the exact opposite, yes, pronouncing woe upon their life and teaching. The essence of their teaching was this: “If a man is successful here on earth, he is blessed and well off.” That was all they aimed for, that if they were pious and served God, He should give them plenty upon earth and deprive them of nothing. ‘Whoever is rich or powerful is completely blessed; on the other hand, whoever is poor and miserable is rejected and condemned before God.” As in the time of Jesus, as in the time of Martin Luther and now in our time, the virtues Jesus speaks about are the characteristics of needy, dependant people -- people that need God. This flies in the face of the common understanding of how God blesses people. In our culture, self-fulfillment, self-reliability, self-help and accompanying success are the characteristics of the strong and the blessed.
B. The Strength of God (in what the world considers weak).
What the people of the world don’t know is that God exhibits his strength in the things that 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 people that are despised and lowly and dependant to show the worthlessness of what the people of the world highly regard and esteem. He raises those people that depend totally on Him and He gracefully gives them all His blessings.
II. We Cannot Earn God’s Blessings.
A. We Try and We Fail
As I said, some Christian teachers teach that Christ’s Sermon on the Mount is a model for Christian living. They see it as a guide to do what pleases God and the way to get His blessing. Thinking this way, we may find ourselves in the peculiar position of trying to earn God’s blessings, trying to be Saints on our own. Of course this appeals to us. We want to earn God‘s blessings don‘t we? Knowing what God wants and who He blesses we may be tempted to gain the qualities that God finds desirable. We may find ourselves trying to be meeker, more merciful, and more pure in heart so that God will bless us. This might seem right to us, after all, we assume that Jesus is teaching us, as He taught His disciples, how to live a Christian life and what that involves. Unfortunately, according to our sinful natures none of these things are natural for us to do. Here we 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.
B. In Failure We See Our Need for Christ.
In our own inability and failure to do what God asks of us, we see that we are unable to earn His blessings. We see our need for a Savior -- through God’s Word we realize how poor in spirit we truly are. In our wretchedness we mourn, crying out before God, each one of us as the chief of sinners. We are laid low in meekness, for what else can we do as sinners faced by a righteous judge. We have no self -righteous pride before God and we cower in humility. Realizing our desperate need God leads us to hunger after righteousness. It is a righteousness that cannot be earned though. Rather it is a righteousness that God alone can give by grace through faith in His Son. God leads us to hunger for our Savior Jesus Christ and He declares us righteous for the sake of His Son. Through these things we see Jesus as the one and only source of all our blessings. Through faith in him God makes us worthy of every blessing.
C. And Find Our Blessing In Christ
How has God blessed you? Where do you find His blessing? Your blessing is found in Jesus who alone has all the virtues and has been given all the blessings of God, -- and freely gives them to you. Your blessing is found in Jesus who for you was poor in spirit, having no pride or self determined will and only doing the will of his Father. Your blessing is found in Christ’s mourning as He mourns for sinners, mourns for you in your separation from God. Your blessing is found in Christ’s meekness, as He quietly suffered to death on the cross to give you life. He alone hungers and thirst for your righteousness before God His Father. It is Christ’s mercy for sinner’s that has been given to you by the spilling of his blood on the cross. For His sake God now sees your hearts as pure because his heart was pure for you. You are again at peace with God on Christ's’ account alone. This is how God has blessed you through Christ’s life death and resurrection for you. His blessings have become your blessings.
Conclusion: Through Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit, empowered with God’s Word we are able to act as the blessed people of God. God has given us a merciful spirit, patient and long suffering to those that don’t believe. God’s Spirit leads us to mourn for the lost and to mourn with those who suffer. God has made us His peacemakers, to proclaim His gospel to the whole world. He has caused us to hunger not only for our own righteousness but for the righteousness if other people. In the office of the Holy Ministry we speak in the stead of Jesus Christ. As a result we can expect to be persecuted for righteousness sake, for Christ's’ sake. We do all these things in response to God’s grace and by His power, looking to Jesus Christ who suffered and died for the righteousness of all people.