Beatitudes Mathew 5:1-5

The Beatitudes

Introduction

A number of years ago I studied the Beatitudes and it had a profound impact on me in that it gave me a vision of the character of the kingdom. And so I recently decided to prepare a series of sermons on the Beatitudes. So I sat down and worked on the text and when I was done doing that I grabbed a big stack of books on the Sermon on the Mount and started to read through them. A lot of work has been done on this sermon of Jesus, in fact there is even a book about the history of interpreting Mathew 5-7.

Out of everything I got my hands on I found Stephen Baugh’s work on the Beatitudes as well as RT France, Gibbs to be most helpful in preparing this sermon. Without these guys I might have come up with some new interpretation and that would mean having to republish the book on the history of interpreting Mathew 5-7.

I want to say a few things about the Beatitudes before we jump into our text.

These beatitudes really say the opposite of what we would expect. If Jesus came along claiming to be God Himself and his message was something like- be confident, don’t forget to press on, believe in yourself even when no one else will…we could say, okay…you claimed to be God but you didn’t speak like God…there is nothing special in what you said.

But here in the Sermon on the Mount we actually do hear Jesus speaking with authority in a way that caused his listeners to be amazed, which really means that they were out of their minds at the teaching of Jesus. They were blown away, completely stunned and shocked!

So we really do have here a sermon from the Son of God. Not anything that any one of us would come up with on our own.

Now Luke 6 is a possible parallel to our passage but they are two different sermons. RT France points out that only 27% of Mathew's discourse is shared with Luke 6:20-49. Jesus obviously preached differently at times.

A significant difference between these two sermons is that we only see blessings here in these Beatitudes but Luke 6 Jesus includes Woes.

What are the Beatitudes?

A wrong tendency for interpreting the beatitudes is to treat them as exhortations and to place an obligation upon God's people to be merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, etc. While these are certainly things we as followers of Christ MUST do; this is NOT what the beatitudes are about.

We do get exhortations in chapter 5:21-48. Jesus in those verses is going to tell the citizens of the kingdom of heaven what the requirements and obligations that regulate us in thought, word and deed are but not here.

We are now going to look at verses 1-5 today but we will read until verse 12.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

2 And he opened his mouth 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 shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

English Standard Version (Chapter 5)

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.11 “Blessed are you when others 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 so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

VS 1. SEEING THE CROWDS, HE WENT UP ON THE MOUNTAIN, AND WHEN HE SAT DOWN, HIS DISCIPLES CAME TO HIM.

In chapter 4 there is some indication that the crowd is big.

But in chapter 5 we read, seeing the crowds he went up on a mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came. So there is a sense in which out of the multitude following he is going to preach primarily to his disciples.

And his disciples come to him. This is important because everyone has tried to claim this sermon for themselves and have done all sorts of damage to the sermon but we see here that Jesus is speaking to his disciples.

Speaking to the disciples but obviously the crowds are listening in. But the Sermon is teaching that is directed to kingdom disciples.

Jesus is talking to the children of the kingdom.

vs 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Interestingly we see in Jesus all but one of the qualities and experiences found in the Beatitudes: he mourned John 11:33-35, was gentle Mathew 9:25, hungered and thirsted for righteousness Math 23:23, was merciful Matt 20:30-34, is pure in heart 1 Peter 2:22-23, and made peace Col 1:20. And obviously he was reviled and persecuted even up to the death on the cross -Matt 27:41-42.

BUT Jesus was NOT poor in spirit 5:3 because that speaks of the key element for saving faith.

The word "beatitude" is simply a Latin-derived word for "blessing" or "blessedness,"

The word blessed here really =

shows the idea of someone who enjoys God's favor and peace. Now obviously if someone knows God’s favor and peace they will be happy as a result of that.

So blessed speaks of people that are privileged because they are have received divine favor. They have been highly favored because of divine grace. And that is what blessing is referring to here.

Before I show you what poor in spirit IS let me show you two responses of people that is NOT poor in spirit

there are two ways we can miss the mark of righteousness before God, two ways the relationship can be destroyed.

One is more or less obvious: outright sinfulness, unrighteousness, lawlessness, self-indulgence, what the Bible would call "worldliness" or, perhaps in more modern dress, carelessness or heedlessness. In other words, we can just say to God, "No thanks, I don't want it, I'll take my own chances."

The other is much less obvious and more subtle, one that morally earnest people have much more trouble with: turning our back on the gift of Jesus Christ and saying in effect, "I do agree with what you demand, but I don't want charity. That's too demeaning. So I prefer to do it myself. What you are offering is `too cheap.' I prefer the law, thank you very much. That seems safer to me." What this means, of course, is that secretly we find doing it ourselves more flattering to our self-esteem.

In this person the law of God is used as a defense against the gift. The more they "succeed," the worse off they are. The relationship to the giver of the gift is broken.

To borrow the language of addiction, it is the addiction that destroys the relationship. The alcoholic can be either a drunk or a "dry drunk." One can be addicted either to what is low at the bottom or to what is high, either to lawlessness or to lawfulness. Theologically there is not any difference since both break the relationship ship to God, the giver because both reject the gospel.

So in the person who says no thank you to the gift and the person who says I’d rather do it myself we see the essence of sin: refusing the gift and thereby setting the self in place of God.

But here in this Beatitude we see the Christian.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed here has to be divine grace, divine favor because the poor in spirit are those who are poor in their inner life. They are those who are spiritually bankrupt. They are spiritual beggars.

being poor in spirit is a status, a condition and those in this spiritually poor condition are having the gospel preached to them and they reach out and grab it with trust!

Poor does not mean economic poverty, although in Jesus' day and our day the spiritually poor are often also economically poor.

Even though we reject what is broadly called liberation theology, we must also beware of the dangers of living in a wealthy, consumeristic society.

It is not a blessing to be physically poor however God can use a lack of physical needs to turn hearts to Himself.

Those who are spiritually poor must have their spiritual needs provided by somebody else.

THESE BEATITUDES are royal pronouncements of God's favor upon kingdom citizens.

The Beatitudes are PRONOUNCEMENTS. Jesus is speaking with kingly authority. He is granting, conveying, forwarding, blessings on his people.

The mood here is NOT BE POOR in spirit, it is that those who get blessed by Jesus ARE these people who are at the end of themselves. They have nothing to hold onto. They are spiritually bankrupt.

The beatitudes are not describing what is there. They are not blessed in regards to their current state. Their current state is poor. Jesus is saying that I am pronouncing you to be something that you are not in yourselves.

And by my pronouncing it, it becomes a reality. It becomes a fact.

You are blessed, you are heirs of the kingdom of heaven, regardless of your circumstances that seem to count against this promise.

In the beatitudes, the King is granting and specifying the blessings given to his people.

Luke 17 is a great example - READ

The man IS poor in spirit. That IS his current condition and HE goes to his house justified but the pharisee does not! All Christians are like the tax collector. The Holy Spirit has brought that about in our lives.

It is important to note that there is no one in the kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit. Citizens of the kingdom are poor in spirit.

It is the fundamental characteristic of the Christian and of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and all the other characteristics are in a sense the result of this one.

The Christian says:

I am aware of my nothingness, my bankrupcy when I stand before God, there is no solution inside of me. There is a problem of sin inside of me and therefore I have to look outside of myself for the solution. I need a Savior outside of me! The person at the end of themselves grabs onto Jesus with trust!

The first Beatitude from Jesus mouth is a word of complete and utter promise and grace.

The reign of heaven belongs to those who have no spiritual resources of their own, to the lost, to the sinners.

Jesus pronounces - blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven

The word IS is a present tense verb and not future. By saying this phrase “is the kingdom of heaven” twice(here and in vs 10), Jesus is highlighting his granting of the kingdom of heaven to his people NOW, in this life.

The Kingdom of God is God’s rule in and over my life.

It also means that the Kingdom is ours, we will have resurrected glorified bodies and when we walk around in the new heavens and earth we will be walking around in our Fathers Kingdom and we will be able to say, “Home sweet home.” And so in a real sense the Kingdom is ours! It is ours and He also reigns over us.

to say that it is to such people that the kingdom of heaven belongs - means that we are the ones who accept God's rule and who therefore enjoy the benefits which come to his subjects.

TODAY: we possess the blessings of the reign of heaven as well; forgiveness, baptism into Christ, the power of the HS for faith and obedience, the nourishment of the Lord's supper, the fellowship with one another.

All of these blessings are given to all of us who have nothing in ourselves. It is granted to us by the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth!

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

The beatitudes are given to those first of all who are in misery. What is emphasized is that the kingdom of heaven contains deliverance for such people not a reward that has been earned. The existing condition is the opposite of what each of the blessings says that they now have.

To be poor in spirit is an objective condition that characterizes all humans in and of themselves, whether they know it or not.

When a person begins to acknowledge that he or she is poor in spirit, that acknowledgement produces the mourning of which 5:4 speaks.

The sense here is to grieve (feeling) - to feel grief or sorrow.

To experience sadness and mourn as the result of your condition or circumstance.

BDAG highlights that we mourn because of the power of the wicked, who oppress the righteous.

There are MANY persecuted Christians mourning today because of the injustice done to them. Think about how they read this. They are being truly oppressed by the wicked. One thing is certain, these Christians mourn over the injustice and they have also mourned over their own sin and their oppression of Gods law. These Christians do both. They have mourned over their own sinful condition and they mourn over their circumstances. But a lot of what we see today in the world is only a mourning over circumstances and no mourning over a sinful condition and the sin that we practice.

No matter what the circumstances we have to be able to mourn over our sin. Over our oppression of God’s law.

In a prison I worked at a number of years ago I spoke to one inmate who ended up in prison for fraud. He ripped off many old people in a pyramid scheme and all he would do is complain about being in prison and talk about the fact that he shouldn’t be there.

I also spoke to another inmate in a maximum security prison who told me that he had killed someone and with great sorrow he asked me if God could ever forgive him for what he did. There you have 2 men both in prison, the most poor of circumstances, both living in a small cell wearing orange overalls everyday with prisoner written all over it and we have two very different responses.

This mourning is to acknowledge your sinful condition before God no matter what your economic circumstance.

We mourn because of our own condition as sinners.

The Heidelberg says

God is terribly angry

with the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit.

To that we say, YES, LORD, that’s me. Hands up.

The Christian is a man who knows what it is to cry out, `O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?'

Whether you are a cleaner who realizes that like the floor needs to be cleaned so do you OR a wealthy stock broker who realizes that just like the stock dropped so is our debt before God. BOTH need to know their condition before the Lord.

Christians are a mourning people. We say, yes Lord, in sin did my mother conceive me. That’s me Lord. Hands up, I’m guilty.

There are millions fighting against God’s verdict, but we church are a people who know our condition, we are not arguing, we accept the verdict and acknowledge who we are before the one true Holy God. We know who we are, we have the right view of ourselves!

And this condition is not a virtue, it is an acknowledgment of who we are. The beatitudes are acknowledging what we don’t have and Jesus looking at the desert and saying blessed!

You are blessed, you who mourn.

blessed are you, for you will be comforted.

God will do this to you, he will act upon you.

We...ARE blessed" but the reason for that blessing is in the future tense: "We will be comforted."

The reign of heaven already now belongs to the poor in spirit yet the promise of final comfort v4, final inheritance v5, will come only on the last day.

Revelation 21 - READ

"We were saved in hope...But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait eagerly for it through endurance" Rom 8:24-25.

There is tension here between the present blessing and joy on the one hand and present mourning until the final comfort on the other hand. This tension is central in the lives of Jesus’ disciples.

But the certainty of our final comfort changes our lives. WE LIVE NOW IN LIGHT OF WHAT IS TO COME.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

A meek person has an accurate assessment of who he or she is. A meek person is a person who has an accurate assessment, they know who they are.

John Stott says “meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others.

It is the opposite of meekness that says “Thank you God, that I am not like the sinner.” Meekness sees the greatest of sinners and says, “except for the grace of God, that would be me.”

For us, meekness comes from the fact that we are poor in spirit and mourn. We look at the world and see other people as being the same as us. Everyone in the world is the same as me. We are all the same apart from grace alone and so when we look at the world we are not arrogant but gentle in our dealings with people.

Meek also refers to our relationship with God

we are "those who wait for the Lord" Ps 37:7-9 instead of scheming to right their own wrongs.

English Standard Version Psalm 37

7  Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices!

8  Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!

Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

9  For the evildoers shall be cut off,

but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.

Psalm 37 encourages us to not to be in agony because of the power and prosperity of evildoers. Rather, hope in the Lord, be still before him and wait for God to act!

We are to leave everything, ourselves, our rights, our cause, our whole future-in the hands of God, and especially if we feel we are suffering unjustly. We learn to say with the apostle Paul, `Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord'. We need not repay, we just deliver ourselves into the hands of God. The Lord will revenge; He will repay. We have nothing to do. We leave ourselves and our cause, and our rights and everything with God, with a quietness in spirit and in mind and heart.

JESUS PROMISES to all of His oppressed and spiritually powerless disciples the future inheritance of a new creation:

They shall inherit the earth

I close with verses from Revelation 21

English Standard Version Chapter 21

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”