The Beatitudes Part 1

Matthew 5:1-3

The Sermon on the Mount is easily the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest Preacher who ever preached. We call it the “Sermon on the Mount” because of the location that Christ preached it. It was not preached in a beautiful sanctuary or an extravagant temple. It was not preached in the beloved Synagogues of Israel. It was an open-air sermon preached on the side of a mountain. It was likely a beautiful and comfortable place during the day. We can almost imagine the grass covering the rolling landscape, the gentle breeze and the warm sun shining on the backs of the listeners. There was no sound system, no power point, and no skit or special music to introduce the message. Yet the listeners were attentive and amazed at the content of the sermon (7:29).

It was a very long sermon, spanning three chapters in the Bible. It was most likely longer than these three chapters, as what is recorded is likely a summary of what the Lord taught. The intent of the sermon is clear.

* It expands and clarifies the teachings of the Law (5:17-48).

* It teaches the character traits that belong to the kingdom (5:3-16).

* It explains the proper manner to perform religious acts (6:1-18).

* It warns against worldliness (6:19-34).

* It exposes hypocrisy (7:1-6).

* It compels us to approach God in prayer as we would our Father (7:7-12).

* It teaches us that religion must come from a heart of sincerity (7:13-27).

If you were taking notes that day you would have probably become frustrated!

The point of the sermon, however, was not to give the people a good outline for them to take home. Jesus was explaining to the people that what they were seeing in the realm of religion was not even close to what God expected of them. In Jesus day there were four main groups of religious people.

*The Pharisees. These were the strict legalists. They believed in the Law and the prophets. They held a high view of Scripture and believed in the spiritual realm and the resurrection. The problem with the Pharisees was that they added to the Scripture and grossly misinterpreted much of it. Their religion was completely external and ceremonial. Therefore, it was dead and impotent.

*The Sadducees. We would call these the liberals in our day. They didn’t believe in a spiritual realm or the resurrection. They picked and chose the portions of the Word of God they believed.

*The Essenes. Many scholars believe John the Baptist was from this group. They believed in complete separation from society. They lived in the wilderness denouncing the worldliness of others.

*The Zealots. These people believed that reform would come through revolution. They thought they if the Jewish people would have freedom it would come through war and rebellion against Rome. Barabas was a zealot (Mark 15:7).

Each of these four groups was dead wrong in their approach to God. In this sermon Jesus sets the record straight. He explains what God expects of His creation. In order for His hearers to live this type of life they will have to undergo a serious change. They will have to be united with the Lord through the new birth. With their sins forgiven they can begin the journey toward Christ like character that pleases God.

v.1-2 Multitudes of people were following Christ by this time (4:23-25). He was healing people, casting out demons and preaching the gospel. Jesus chose to use the opportunity of the crowd to begin making disciples of the people. The great principle Jesus teaches us is that we must meet more than the physical needs. We must also meet spiritual needs. It does little good to feed a stomach and starve a soul. It makes no sense to heal a body yet leave it with the disease of sin.

It was the custom of teachers to teach sitting down. He sat down to teach and the people came and surrounded Him. The disciples as well as the multitude were with Him.

Jesus began His teaching with a character description of kingdom people. This section is known as the Beatitudes. The word means “blessed”. The Greek word describes someone who is fully satisfied. The word, therefore, is synonymous with joy or happiness. More than this, the word describes a person who is favored by God. The grace of God brings satisfaction to the believer’s life. He is fully satisfied and full of joy as a result. In all, Jesus lists eight descriptive terms that accompany kingdom people. Each trait is followed by a corresponding promise. Let’s begin to look at these individually.

v.3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is significant that this beatitude is first. The phrase “poor in spirit” describes an individual’s personal awareness that they are spiritually bankrupt before God. There are two Greek words we can look at that describe “poor”. One is “penes”. This is a person who is poor but has the ability to labor and receive necessary items to live. The other word is “ptochos”. This word is used to describe a beggar. If you are “ptochos” you cannot work. You can only obtain what you need by depending on the gifts of others. This is the word used for the “poor in spirit”. It is also used to describe Lazarus as he lay begging at the rich man’s gate (Luke 16:20).

Before we can receive salvation, we have to recognize that we have no ability to earn it on our own. We are bankrupt and helpless when it comes to gaining God’s favor. The religious leaders of Jesus day were full of pride. The story of the Pharisee and the tax collector demonstrate this in Luke 18:9-14. The tax collector went home justified because he recognized his great spiritual need. We are justified through salvation when in humility we come to God as broken and bankrupt sinners trusting His Son for our righteousness. It is then that we enter into the kingdom of God.

The believer not only enters the door of salvation through humility. He also lives in humility. The mindset of the believer is set upon His own unworthiness. Even mature men of God like Paul continued to recognize their spiritual bankruptcy before God (Rom. 7:18, 1 Tim. 1:15, Phil. 3:8). If we are to live pleasingly to the Lord we are to continue our life with “lowliness of mind esteeming others better than ourselves” (Phil. 2:3).

Our level of humility reveals our level of maturity. We never outgrow humility. It is a character trait we have as we enter the kingdom and it should only grow as we continue our walk with the Lord.

The most practical way to stay humble is to continue to draw near to God. The closer we get to Him the more unworthy we realize we are. The nearness of God caused the prophet Isaiah to cry out “Woe is me!” (Isaiah 6). It caused John to fall on his face as a dead man (Rev. 1:17). The nearness of God in our lives will cause us to flee from pride. If pride creeps into our lives we can be sure that we are growing distant from the Lord.

v.4 In this verse Jesus says, “Happy are the sad”. To us, as well as to His hearers, this may not make a lot of sense. How can those who mourn be considered blessed? We usually pity those who mourn. We certainly do not want to be like them. Who wants to mourn? Obviously, there is deeper that Christ is teaching. To discover the meaning of what He is teaching means to discover how a person can receive the comfort of God.

People cry for different reasons.

* Sometimes people cry because their own sinful pleasures are not met. In Revelation 18:11 the great city of Babylon falls & the merchants weep over her. They weep over her because she was supplying them with what they needed to satisfy their sinful lusts. Today people weep when they do not get the man/woman they want. They weep when they cannot build bigger barns. They weep when they cannot live the lifestyle they need to accommodate their sinfulness. In summary, they weep because they are not content. This is certainly not the type of mourning rewarded with Gods comfort.

* Sometimes people cry for natural reasons. Life itself brings heartache. Solomon said, “There is a time to weep” (Eccl. 3:4). When tragedy strikes people naturally weep. When a loved one dies, someone naturally weeps. The story is told of Rizpah and her sons in 2 Samuel 21. Rizpah’s sons were hung because of the brutal way their father treated the Gibeonites. Their bodies were left out in the open. For approximately three months she kept the scavengers beat off of her sons so that their bodies would not be dishonored. One can only imagine the heartache that she endured during this time. As deep as the sorrow of losing a loved one is, that sorrow does not guarantee comfort. Many people die without ever being comforted, even though they have endured a legitimate reason to mourn. Therefore, this is not the type of mourning that is rewarded with the comfort of God.

* Sometimes people cry for the right reasons. The sorrow that moves one to mourn in the manner mentioned in this verse is godly sorrow. The Bible makes a clear distinction between the sorrow of the world and the sorrow that God brings into a person’s life (2 Cor. 7:9-11). This is the type of sorrow that is rewarded with the comfort of God.

The word for “mourn” is a strong word that means to weep as one would weep at the death of a loved one. It is used to describe the disciples as they wept over Jesus’ death (Mark 16:10). It implies an inner discomfort that is also manifest in an outward way.

Why are kingdom people mourning?

The mourning that Jesus mentions is a result of the poverty of spirit He mentioned in the previous verse. Those who follow Jesus recognize that they are spiritually bankrupt and unable to attain righteousness on their own. As a result, they mourn.

Through the Spirit, God brings a discomfort to our souls that ushers in godly sorrow. That sorrow brings us to a place of repentance. Our repentance should be understood as our mourning.

Sin should break our hearts. If sin does not break our hearts then we have not experienced the godly sorrow that leads to repentance. We need to see three things if we want to mourn over our sin:

*We need to see God in all of His love and holiness.

*We need to see ourselves in all of our sin and ugliness.

*We need to see judgment in all of its severity and seriousness.

This is what every believer has witnessed. This is why we came to Christ. The reality of God, our own sin, and judgment moved us to mourn and repent of our sin. Kingdom people must mourn because it is mourning that leads us to Christ.

Kingdom people continue to mourn while we are on this earth.

*We mourn for personal reasons. Timothy had tears in his eyes when Paul left him (2 Tim. 1:3-4). We don’t know exactly why. We can only imagine that the young man was full of heartache over the trials of life. Believers are not immune to sorrow. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is that we have the promise of the comfort of God.

* We mourn over the sinful state of our world. Jeremiah wept desperately as he witnessed the state of his people (Jeremiah 9:1). It is natural for us to be broken over the spiritual state of our country.

* We mourn when we see the suffering of others. My heart breaks when I see a handicapped person or hear about a family who has lost a child. Believers naturally care because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.

*We mourn when we lose a loved one. Abraham wept when he lost his beloved Sarah (Genesis 23:2). Jesus wept when Lazarus died (John 11:35). Even at the death of a believer we mourn.

*We mourn when we recognize the sinful nature in our lives. Paul was so broken over this that he cried out “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24) He said in Romans 8:23 “even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”.

Kingdom people will be comforted.

The comfort of God is the calming of the soul. Everyone has experienced a trembling within. It is a fear or dread. God calms this fear, and this is what His comfort is. We experience that comfort initially when we are saved. The fear of judgment is replaced with the comfort that God has forgiven us of our sins (1 John 1:9).

God continues to comfort the believer through his earthly life. We sorrow when we lose a loved one, but not like unbelievers do (1 Thess. 4:13). God comforts us with the reality that we will see that person again someday. We sorrow when we experience trials (2 Cor. 13-5). Yet God comforts us with His presence and. We sorrow when we are overwhelmed with the sinfulness of the world. Yet God comforts us with the promise that He will one day wipe away every tear (Rev. 7:17).

God is faithful to bring comfort to the believer as he needs it. We should be faithful as well to comfort others through His indwelling Spirit. Paul warned the Corinthian church to comfort a repentant brother who had been engaged in sin (2 Cor. 2:5-7). Paul was aware that an unforgiving spirit may cause someone to be swallowed up in sorrow. God comforts His sinful and fearful people with forgives and promises. As kingdom people, we should do the same.