Series: Disciple. Disciple of The King | Sermon on The Mount, Matthew 5:1-12

Notes

New Series. New Book.

Opener

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace...is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship

Today we are starting a new series. A series called “Disciple” that is on the “Sermon on the Mount”. And todays message is called “Disciple of The King”. We will see there is much to being a disciple, because there is much to being in Christ. It takes powerful, working, unmerited, grace of God to become a disciple and it takes that same powerful grace to be a disciple.

Main Text

Matthew 5:1–12 (NASB95) 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 He opened His mouth and began to teach 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 gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 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 have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Point 1 We Need Discipleship

Disciple

Notice the words “His disciples came to Him.”

Discipleship and THE SERMON

The Sermon on the Mount is about discipleship!

1. First time the word is used in the NT

2. Major theme in Matthew. The longest teaching section of Jesus in the entire Bible begins with it and the book ends with Jesus charing them to make disciples by teaching them all He had commanded. What could be a more practicail carrying out of that command then teaching them the Sermon on the Mount.

3. The early church recognized it as a discipleship manual if you will. No doubt because of its large teachings sections.

Up to this point Jesus had called men to follow him but here is the first time in Matthew and thus in our New Testament that the term “disciple” is used.

Defintion

Bakers Encyclopedia defines a disciple this way: “Someone who follows another person or another way of life and who submits himself to the discipline (teaching) of that leader or way.”

Human Beings are Natural Disciplers

It is important to know that there were disciples of other Rabbis, Philosophers, Religions, and mystics in Jesus’ day. The goal of a disciple is to become like their teacher. It is to learn from them. Discipleship is something that seems to come natural to human beings. We want to pass on what we know to others. One brother told me of gentlemen in the workplace who was getting trained by someone at a job. Here is the thing. The guy getting trained already knew how to do all the stuff he was being trained on from previous work experience but the guy training him was so excited to train him he just let him go on.

My wife loves Boiled Peanuts. It is this very southern thing. Along the side of the highway you would see boiled peanut stands. It was easier to stop and by boiled peanuts then get gas some times. My wife learned how to make them because they are not readily available up here. But to my wife’s great joy she has a little boiled peanuts disciple in our home, Felicity. We humans like to pass on things about ourselves. We like to make others like us.

The danger is throughout human history mankind has done a great job at making disciples of sin, of the devil.

Paul could sum it all up nicely:

Romans 5:12 (NASB95) 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

We are going to be discipled by someone. We are going to be like someone. So the solution is SIMPLE we must cling to Jesus. As the old Bob Dillion song goes, “you have got to serve somebody. I may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you are going to serve somebody.” We must do what the discples did in earlier chapters:

a. Respond to the call of Christ to come and follow Him. Become His disciple.

b. Sit at His feet and learn.

No Mere Rabi

Jesus is not just another competing voice in the sea of teachers in his day. The Gospel of Matthew argues convincingly that He is the KING. And He is no mere earthly King. He is the KING of The KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS. That by the end of this sermon you will see he has the authority to say, “those who hear and act on His words are those who build upon the rock!” and the crowds would respond:

Matthew 7:28–29 (NASB95) 28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29for He was teaching them as onehaving authority, and not as their scribes.

Jesus is not like other teachers. He is one who has “All Authority in Heaven and on earth” as He would declare in Matthew after His resurrection from the dead.

Friends will you learn from the King of Heaven? Will you humble yourself under God’s mighty hand? If you will you will be blessed! But if you will not you will miss out on the Kingdom of Heaven!

Point 2 The Blessings Are In Christ (The King!)

Kingdom

Notice in the beatitudes it starts with , “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” And the 8th one ends with “blessed are the persecuted… for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This kingdom of Heaven not only frames the beautitudes it is the major theme of the Gospel of Matthew. Kingdom is used 55 times in Matthew and the phrase “kingdom of heaven” makes up 32 of those and most of the other remaing 23 occurrence illude to this same kingdom.

John the Baptist and Jesus star their ministry saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Why is the Kingdom of Heaven at hand? Because the King had come down from heaven and is now here. Why are the Magi so important in the Gospel of Matthew? Because these oft called “three kings” and heaven watchers wanted to Worship THE KING of heaven:

Matthew 2:2 (NASB95) 2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

By the end of the book Jesus triumphally declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He is LORD of all.

NOT How to become a Christian

It is important to point out these teachings in the sermon on the Mount are not “How to become a Christian”. You do not be more merciful and merit your mercy from God. You do not be more pure in heart and earn your sonship. Not at all. These are the markers of the Christian. One who has put faith in Christ and is now a child of God. One who is now in “Christ”. One who is a servant of the Great King of heaven.

How to get into the Kingdom

The truth of the matter is every single one of these Beatitudes, blessings… has to do with the blessings of being in the Kingdom. And How do you get in the Kingdom? Its interesting. The only way into the Kingdom is through the bloody cross of the crucified King. As it read above Him on that cross: “King of The Jews”. Paul would say this to the Christians who had put faith in this King:

Colossians 1:13 (NASB95) 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

Whose Kingdom? The Son’s! Jesus’. Paul would say in Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:3 (NASB95) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Don’t miss the two most important words in that sentence: “in Christ!”

The blessings we have are all where? They are found in Christ! The blessings are in the Kingdom and the Kingdom is where the King is.

Christ is the FULFILLMENT of these Blessings

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, not looking to a righteousness of their own, because He who was rich became poor so we who were poor could become spiritually rich in Him.

2. Blessed are the meek because Jesus would fight for them. By trusting in Him they would become joint heirs of the Kingdom.

3. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness because Christ would become their righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB95) 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Don’t miss those last two little words friend, “in HIM”. Only “In HIM” can we become the righteousness of God. Adam before the fall could have been righteous but He couldn’t have been “THE RIGHTEOUNESS OF GOD”. What a KING that he would take us earthly vessels and make us worthy of the Kingdom of God.

And I could go on and on. But friends do you see how this is all about Christ? The Beatitudes even end emphasizing this very point.

Matthew 5:10–11 (NASB95) 10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

Do you want the blessings of the Kingdom? They are found in Christ. They last for eternity. They never disappoint.

Point 3 The Blessings are Now

John Stott said this regarding the original greek word we translate “Blessing” and that some have translated as “happy”. He says this, “It is seriously misleading to translate μακάριος as “happy”. Happiness is subjective while Jesus is making an objective judgment about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel on a particular occasion, happy, but what God thinks of them and what they really are. They are blessed!” – John Stott.

The blessings are the blessings of the Kingdom. They are found in the Kingdom which is to say they are found IN CHRIST. They are found in the great King of The kingdom. Which means you were bought with the blood of Jesus. But the Kingdom isn’t just coming. The Kingdom is here now. Jesus promised He would not leave us as orphans. The Kingdom is where the King is and God dwells with man now. You are in Christ now and thus you are in the Kingdom now so its means the blessing are for now as well. So let’s look at the 8 spiritual blessings the Poor, the Mourning, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemaker, the persecuted and see how they are for the Christian now.

#1 Poor in Spirit

Matthew 5:3 (NASB95) 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Christian is still “poor in spirit” in that they are humble just like their Savior. Because of that they lean trust and realy not on their own spirit but the Holy Spirit. So the poor in spirit are STRONG in the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the disciples to wait for “Power from on high”. But the key is humility. And the power will produce, or should produce, more humility.

In my own life and in the life of the BEST Christians I know that as they continue to grow and mature in the Lord their recognition how great a sinner that is saved by grace grows. When you first get saved your broken over your sin. But 20 years of walking with the Lord and being refined and working out all kinds of flaws in our nature we come to realize all the more what Jesus died for.

I think you see this in Paul’s life. It starts with an in your face revelation of the Lord in Acts 9 where He is saying, “Who are you Lord?” But after 20 years of walking with the Lord writing one of his last letters Paul could clearly declare, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of which I am the foremost!” Sanctification produces a greater appreciation of the Savior and just how dependent upon Him we are every moment of every day!

Matthew 5:3 (NASB95) 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

#2 Those who Mourn

Matthew 5:4 (NASB95) 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

These are all spiritual blessing. The spiritual does make way for the natural. You are born again now. Made alive spiritually in Christ now but one day even your body will be resurrected. All things will be made new. You should be broken and mourn over sin and you can be comforted by God. The Holy Spirit, the comforter He is called, will come and give your weary soul assurance and confidence before God. One day God’s promise is He will whipe every tear from your eye! No more more sorrow no more pain. But you can be comforted now.

You can have God with you now. The one thing Job’s friends did very right before all the yapping was they sat with him. Sometimes being a good friend and sometimes the only comfort you can give is being there. But that means a lot! The hardest things we lose in life are people. In other separation causes the greatest mourning. We should mourn that our sins have separated us from God. But what is the comfort then? God comes and dwells with us! WOW what amazing blessing you can have now! And what a gift we can give to others when they suffer by simply being there for them.

Matthew 5:4 (NASB95) 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

#3 The Meek

Matthew 5:5 (NASB95) 5 “Blessed are the gentle [or meek], for they shall inherit the earth.

Meek isn’t weak! Drill that into your head. Meek is NOT week!

Meekness is reserved. The person who takes every insult and wants to fight every person who suggests something inferior about is the opposite of meek. Meekness is strength reservd. Abraham showed meekness after going to war and reschuing Lot then let Lot choose which land he was going to take. Meekness is confident in who they are, a child of God, and knows the world and the devil can’t define them or change that.

Meekness is full of faith. Meekness lets God fight for you. We live in a world of might makes right. One of the greastest attributes of George Washington that makes him stand out among all Presidents of the United States is he chose to leave power after his second term. He exercised meekness. He didn’t see power as something to be used for his own gain. But instead exercised humilty in laying down control and power. He was meek. And we to can operate in meekness. Not because we are week though we may be by human standards. But because power is perfected in weakness. The Power of God has secured in Christ. Not only is our life hidden in Christ with God and our eternity secure in Him but He will fight for us and avenge us for any who wrong us. Friends you are an heir, in Christ, of this entire earth.

Think of a place you would to travel to or vacation to. I know there is a couple in this church that just went to Hawaii. Did you know you are the proper heir, in Christ, of Hawaii? And not just Hawaii the whole earth. But that’s not because you fight for Hawaii. That’s not because you by might will pry it from the hands of another. But because God in great power through the cross (what looked like weakness) has pried it from the hands of the devil and graciously gives it back to His children. What the devil stole in Genesis 3 God restores and so much more.

Matthew 5:5 (NASB95) 5 “Blessed are the gentle [or meek], for they shall inherit the earth.

#4 Those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Matthew 5:6 (NASB95) 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

I already mentioned how Christ is our ultimate fulfilment of this. He is our righteousness. But the Christian should be growing in righteousness and their desire for God’s righteous reign on earth! Are hunger and our satisfaction should grow in Christ now. We should be bothered by sin around us, but we should be most bothered by sin with in us.

Matthew 5:6 (NASB95) 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

#5 The Merciful

Matthew 5:7 (NASB95) 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

I mentioned this last week. But this isn’t meant to be a robotic system. Though it certainly is true on its face. The point is the merciful are merciful because they are recipients of God’s mercy. They love much because they have been forgiven much.

But friends what great spiritual truth. We must be merciful. The now famous quotes sums up two ideas in the sermon on the mount well: “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

The Christian community not only can’t function without mercy it loses its very identity. This is why its more appalling when a church or a Christian doesn’t show mercy to a lost and dying world. They forget the very ground upon which their house is built is a foundation called mercy.

We as debotrs to the cross. Jouyous debtors must be merciful. Is their someone you need to let off the hook? Is their someone you need to forgive? Is their someone you need to restore and give a second chance? Did God not do that for you?

Eventually here in Matthew Jesus is going to say, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” but in the parallel passage in Luke He says, “Be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful.” Christian’s should measure their Christlikeness perhaps above all in proportion to the mercy they show.

Matthew 5:7 (NASB95) 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

# 6 Pure in Heart

Matthew 5:8 (NASB95) 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Of course we know that no one has seen God but the only begotten God, who is in the bossom of the Father, He has revealed Him. In other words the pure in heart shall see the Messiah for who He really is.

To be pure in heart we need God to do what we can’t. it is amazing we live in a day in age where a physical heart transplant is a thing. But no man has ever put a new spiritual heart in a man except God alone.

“Put in me a clean Heart O God!”

A heart that is inclined to God’s way. Not double minded. Not tossed to and frow. But faithful. Committed…. PURE! This is the great promise of the New Covenant. God would put a new heart in us. The Law could tell us the right thing to do, but now God would enable us through the blood of Jesus and the regenerating of the Holy Spirit to DO His will.

“Unless one be born again He cannot see the Kingdom of God” Jesus said in John.

Matthew 5:8 (NASB95) 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

#7 The Peacemakers

Matthew 5:9 (NASB95) 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker. Most of Paul letters start with grace and peace to you. You can’t have the peace unless the grace comes first. Peacemaking is hard work though. Think about it. You have peace with God right now but at what cost? At great cost to THE SON OF GOD. And friends if you want to walk in His footsteps know it will not just be holding your tongue, overlooking an offense, and being quick to forgive that will make you a peacemaker. Though that is a good start. You are going to have to get into peoples lives, always taking the higher road, and help them lay down offense, forgive, and commit to doing things God’s way.

One of the great principles of conflict resolution in the Bible, Matthew 18, is that if your brother sins against you that you go to them in private. You go to them. You don’t ignore them. You don’t shun them. You don’t give them the silent treatment. You go to them. To some here you avoid conflict like the plague. While there is a place for that, we don’t want to be conflict generators either, sometimes the most unchristian thing you can do is avoid conflict. If Jesus avoided conflict He wouldn’t be our Savior.

Matthew 5:9 (NASB95) 9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

#8 The Persecuted

Matthew 5:10–12 (NASB95) 10“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The poor, the mourning, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemaker and the persecuted?

All of these can be easily spiritualized. Poor in Spirit… Hungry for righteousness… but not so much with persecuted. This means bad things happening to you. Further more all the other qualities are qualities you are. You can be meek, merciful, and a peacemaker…. You have no control over persecution. This is something being done to you. But you are still in control of something in this passage. Your attitude. “Rejoice and be glad!” Jesus says. Now you are really starting to look like the Messiah.

The Apostles would literally do this:

Acts 5:41 (NASB95) 41So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Now I must caution you. If you don’t pay your taxes and get arrested by the government… you are not what Jesus is talking about here. If you lie at work and get fired you are not the “persecuted” this passage is talking about. This is suffering for righteousness and suffering for Christ.

And this IS for every Christian. I want to be super clear on this. Persecution and suffering IS for every Christian.

John 15:18–19 (NASB95) 18“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

And if you had any doubt what that meant listen to the words of Paul who had a PhD in suffering:

2 Timothy 3:12 (NASB95) 12Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

All…

Persecution might look like insults, physical harm, or slander. There is a spiritual dimension to this. The world, under the rule of the devil, hates God and hates its children. Now are struggle is not against flesh and blood so we must be careful how we respond. I refer you back to the other blessings. Be a poor, merciful, peacemaker. Don’t fight evil with evil or even with vengeance. We fight evil with good and love and mercy.

But make no mistake if you want to be a Christian you are going to have to follow Christ and He was crucified.

The worst thing is when fellow Christians become the insulters, persecutors, and slanderers. May that never be said of us and if that has been you repent.

We are very fortunate to live in the united states were there are laws that protect religious persecution. We have bretheren around the world who die daily.

Voice of the martyrs tells the story of Ruth from the Philippines.

She and her husband, Armando, had moved to the village in 1990 to start a church, which over the years had grown to 20 families. Their village of about 800 households was evenly split between Muslims and Christians, but the Muslim rebels hoped to establish Muslim domination in Mindanao and drive out all Christians. That night in 2008, Ruth was terrified by the sound of the nearby fighting. She, Armando and their three children ran behind their house, searching their property for a place to hide. Seeing nothing better than the small footbridge that crossed a murky canal behind their house, they quickly crawled under it. They knew there were snakes in the water, but they chose the danger of the snakes over that of the Muslim rebels they could hear advancing on the village. The couple tried to keep the girls quiet, but they were scared and crying. “We were praying to the Lord to cover us with His precious blood, asking for Him to protect us because we are in the ministry,” Ruth said. They passed the next eight hours until daylight by praying, quietly singing and talking. As dawn broke the next morning, the family crawled out from under the bridge, muddy and stiff but unharmed by either snakes or the Muslim rebels. During the next five years, Ruth and her family were forced to evacuate their village because of fighting every year.

To be a part of Jesus Kingdom is to be in conflict with the Kingdom of the World. But we must remember we don’t respond the way the world does to conflict. We respond the way the Great King of Heaven did, as a poor, merciful, peacemaker. Are ultimate victory isn’t crushing our fellow fallen mankind but winning them to the great king away from the domain of darkness.

Amen!