Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

We are in week 6 of our series, “An Upside Down Kingdom”

We are going through the Beatitudes that Jesus started His Sermon on the Mount with.

The beatitudes are characteristics that followers of Jesus should live by.

Each beatitude starts with a blessing over a person that does a certain action or has a certain attitude or mindset.

Followed by a promise.

So far we’ve gotten through the first five starting in Matthew 5:3.

Matthew 5:3-7 NIV “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 be shown mercy.”

If you’ve missed any of these messages they should be on our website, app, Facebook page, or YouTube Channel.

Today we are going to jump into verse 8.

Matthew 5:8 NIV “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

So the question of course is, what does it mean to be pure in heart?

The word pure here does not mean something that has never been dirty.

It means something that has been cleansed.

Which is a good thing for us.

Because if pure meant that we’ve been perfect our whole lives we would all be in trouble.

But it means that we’ve been dirty and full of sin but now through Jesus we can be cleansed and pure.

And what it also doesn’t mean is that now that you may be pure in heart that you are PERFECT.

Well if I’m pure that means I don’t have any blemishes and I clearly won’t sin anymore.

1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

We have a sin nature that we are fighting against and we will sin at some point in our life.

We’re not perfect.

Now again that doesn’t mean we willfully live in sin.

But being pure in heart has more to do with what’s happening on the inside of us more than the outside.

There’s a group of people that I think of in the Bible when I think of this concept.

The Pharisees

There were around 613 laws that the Jewish people had to live by and the Pharisees made sure you kept everyone of them.

And the law was a lot of DOING things.

Outwardly showing how you follow God.

And the Pharisees really looked the part.

They’re like the people who always go to church and even post pictures of themselves doing their devotions with their Bible out and a coffee next to it.

And we look at them and think, “wow they are such a good Christian.”

But they really haven’t had a heart change.

They look the part on the outside but there’s nothing different on the inside.

And social media has definitely made it easy for us to portray an image of ourselves that might not be completely accurate.

You can’t really know who someone is based on their Facebook page.

You can find out information about them but you don’t really know them.

And Jesus makes it clear that He cares more about your heart than how you APPEAR to be living.

Look at what He says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23.

Matthew 23:27-28 NIV “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Jesus is saying you are like a tomb or casket that may look beautiful on the outside but when it’s all said and done it’s full of dead bones that are rotting and decaying.

He calls them hypocrites.

What we have to understand is that our heart is NOT naturally good.

We’ve all said this about someone before…

“Well they have a good heart”.

NO THEY DON’T

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

Your heart is naturally wicked.

I always say if you want proof that our hearts are naturally wicked just have kids!

They naturally tend to do what is wrong and we have to teach them what is right.

And that’s why we need Jesus to cleanse our hearts.

And if we’ve truly gone through the steps of the Beatitudes we should get to a place where we can be pure in heart.

We’ve humbled ourselves before God acknowledging we are nothing without him.

We’ve then mourned our sin and repented.

We’ve then become meek and gentle and submitted ourselves to God’s authority.

And now we are hungering and thirsting to live righteous lives for God. Which means living the way God intended us to live.

Which means we need to be merciful and learn to forgive others when they don’t deserve forgiveness.

And when we do those things we can have a pure heart.

When I think of a pure heart there's one word that pops in my mind.

INTEGRITY.

I looked up the definition of integrity.

The first definition is, “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”

I think that fits being a believer.

But I really liked the second definition.

“the state of being whole and undivided.”

I think of that definition when it comes to following Jesus and being pure of heart.

It means you are not divided by the things of this world but that your primary focus is living for Jesus.

And when you do that you will be a person of integrity.

C.S. Lewis simplified it and defined integrity his own way.

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

Integrity is being the same person no matter where you are or who you are with.

Because you’ve had a change on the inside and it affects EVERYTHING you do on the outside.

I heard a pastor use an example of a house.

When you walk into a finished house you see the beautiful walls and decorations.

You flip on the light switch and the lights just come on.

You have power to your outlets.

Water that comes out of your sinks and showers.

And it’s amazing and it’s functioning properly.

But what you don’t see is what’s going on behind the walls.

All the pipes and plumbing and electrical wires and everything you need to make a house work.

I’m one of those guys who often asks the question, “how in the world does that work?”

“How do we get electricity into our homes?”

“How do we make our water hot and cold?”

I’m not a handyman at all

I had to tell my wife to stop complimenting me when I hung a picture up because I felt like that was an insult to my manhood.

But it’s the thousands of things happening on the inside of the house that are causing it to function like it’s supposed to.

It’s the same thing with us.

It’s what’s happening on the inside of us, in our hearts that causes us to function the way God intended us to.

And we will function that way whether we are with a group of people or if we are by ourselves.

Being pure in heart means that I don’t just look the part when I’m with certain people but it’s who I am.

I liked this definition I heard…

“Pure in Heart is an internal wholeness that results in external holiness.”

So the question is how can I live pure in heart?

There’s 3 things you can do to help you live a life that pure in heart

BE CAREFUL

What are you allowing to influence your life?

Because what you surround yourself with and listen to and watch will have an affect on you.

Proverbs 4:23 NIV “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

So be careful with what or WHO is influencing you.

Make sure you have people in your life who can keep you accountable.

That are willing to call you out when you aren’t doing the things you should.

Be careful because the enemy is coming for you and wants to deceive you.

BE CONSISTENT

Are you the same person at home that you are with your friends or at church?

Or do you have times when people have come up to you and said, “why are you acting this way? Why are you being so different?”

Quit trying to blend in with whoever you’re with and be the same God loving, people loving person ALL THE TIME!

BE COURAGEOUS

People who are pure in heart stand up for what’s right and true.

And in a time where it can be dangerous to stand up for truth because our culture will attack us, we need COURAGEOUS followers of Jesus to take a stand for the Word of God.

No matter what people may say about us or to us.

And what’s the promise for the pure in heart?

“they will see God.”

Remember Jesus is speaking to a group of people who have been told their whole life that if you want to see God you have to follow certain rules.

Remember there were around 613 laws that the Jewish people had to live by if they wanted to be right with God and basically see God.

And now Jesus comes out and says if you want to see God you need to be pure in heart.

Not do a bunch of random things.

What’s really interesting is when you look at that word “see” and realize what that means.

Because the New Testament was written in Greek and there are a few different Greek words that we translate into English as the word “see”.

One Greek word that we translate into “see” means to see with the eye.

Like when I see my iPad and then look away from it.

I see it, I look at it quickly.

Another word is the kind of see when you observe something.

Like when you go to the movies.

You sit there and you are going to SEE the movie.

You’re going to observe what this movie is about.

And then when you leave you say you have “SEEN” that movie.

The third Greek word that we translate into the word “SEE” means to see and to KNOW!

It’s a face to face personal relationship or friendship with.

It’s like when my wife and I go to Florida to visit her sister and her family.

When we go we don’t go and knock on their door and just “see” them real quick and then walk away.

Or we don’t go down there and plant our lawn chairs in their yard and just watch and “observe” them and not talk to them.

And then say, “it was good seeing you, bye!”

That’s called stalking and it’s weird.

When we go to Florida we go and “SEE” them.

Meaning we spend time with them, talk with them, and have a relationship with them.

And that’s the kind of “see” that Jesus is talking about when He says, “they will SEE God”.

Jesus is saying if you truly want to SEE God and have a relationship with God you need to be pure in heart.

That is a radical statement that Jesus is saying to this group of people.

The Pharisees are probably freaking out hearing what He’s saying.

“You can’t SEE God like that. Only us and the priests can see God in that way.”

And Jesus was saying ANYONE has the ability to see God and to know Him.

Just live a life totally devoted to following Him.

A life of integrity.

A life committed to doing what’s right for the Kingdom of God.

Altar Call