The Beatitudes

Sermon on the Mount  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Intro

Last week we started a brand new series on the most important sermon that Jesus ever gave
We have so much that we talked about this week that I am just going to dive right in..
It is a sermon about the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God…
Last week we talked about what the Gospel is
What Jesus proclaimed is that the Gospel is God’s kingdom that is available to ordinary people, right now.
it means his rule and reign available to us.
What Jesus was saying is that Sin doesn't have to rule us any more, The curses from the garden of Eden no longer has to have say over how we live our lives
The availability of the kingdom of God, indeed is that availability of the life of God to us right now...
The Gospel isn’t just about going to heaven after you die, but it is about getting the life of God into you right now \
And since heaven is all about the presence of God…Its about getting heaven into you now...
If your life is a living hell…Then this is good news
If your life always has to go your way…this is good news
If your angry all the time…This is good news for you
If your lost in life this is good news
If you are just alone in life, this is good news…It means your never alone. God is with you
The Sermon on the mount is about what it looks like when God’s rule and reign is extended through you today
And what it looks like is a radical

The Danger in todays sermon

Here is the danger in the scripture we are going to read...
You might read this or hear this today and think…Oh man I need to become more poor in spirit or more meek or shoot I need to be persecuted more if Jesus is going to love me… And thats not it at all…
What we will read today is not a behavior modification list…And there will be this temptation all the way through the sermon on the mount for you to think in terms of Behavior modification
Like…I just need to be less angry
Or if I were only less lustful then my life would be better...
And the reality is that what we are reading today is not a prescription for how to live your life
It is a description of kingdom character...
It is really how to find God’s kingdom in the midst of life
Once you get God’s kingdom into you…this is how life looks
So lets get into the text today
So first we have to remember

25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

So Jesus had religious people and Pagans
He had all kinds of people
There were people from Syria to probably where modern day Iraq was...
And this is a small point but its so crucial: IF you remember I did a series called embracing exile…This Sermon that Jesus was giving was actually drawing on the places from where they would have been historically been in exile.
Jesus is almost saying…Come out of exile…I am the way to a new life…follow me...
Now turn with me look at Matthew 5
So Today I am going to do something a little different…We are just going to crawl through this verse by verse
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Matthew 5:1-3 NIV
The New International Version (Chapter 5)
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
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He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
So first and foremost…Nearly every commentator has picked up on the idea that Jesus goes and sits on the mountainside and teaches...
you are supposed to have in your mind that this is what happened with Moses and the 10 commandments...
One of the greatest moments of Israel’s history…the giving of the Torah is now being reimagined, but it is not God’s servant…
This time it is a member of the trinity himself, the son of man... giving the law
So the first thing that Jesus will do is give this series of blessings…It was a totally odd way of starting a sermon…it would have grabbed their attention
And by blessed: A great way to interpret that is like Jesus saying…”Fortunate for you”…or “Good for you” or another scholar looked at Jesus words here and said…Its almost as if Jesus were saying “Right on” or “you lucky bum”
Because the things that Jesus says are blessed are like…WHAT? How is that blessed?
So what is spiritual poverty?
And again…These blessings will seem totally strange unless you understand that God’s rule and reign that is now available to you
In the Old Testament Isaiah had this vision where he saw God and this was his reply
Isaiah 6:5

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

This is the only proper response when you are confronted with God...
Spiritual poverty is where you stand before God and say…I’ve got nothing to offer…I am a sinner!
Isaiah was a good guy, but no amount of his own goodness made him feel worthy to stand before God...
So what Jesus is saying here is blessed are those who understand how much they lack and how much they need God
Because these people will wait empty handed on God for deliverance
I love what Pastor Timmothy Keller has said about this beatitude: He talks about how we all have to grapple with having a “middle class” faith…And what he means by that is that we are a people who have made our own money…we have built our own lives…we have depended on ourselves for what we need
And when we have done that....We would never take a hand out...
Middle class people are too proud for a handout...
But this is exactly what Grace is....Its a spiritual handout.
and when you have done that your whole life you have never needed a hand out…in fact it is insulting to take a handout...
But the poor in spirit realize that they are could never be good on their own
The poor in spirit recognize their need for being saved
But that is what grace is...
And here is the deal…If you are too proud for a spiritual handout then you will never experience all that Jesus has for you.
Grace is handed out by Jesus and if you are not poor in spirit then you are just not ready for a handout...
So blessed are you…You lucky bum…If you are standing before God shaking your cup looking for a handout...
Because you’ll experience God’s kingdom!
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Matthew 5:4
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
So every layer deeper in the Beatitudes is like…What are you saying Jesus…and you have to look through the Bible at this point and ask what is the deal with mourning
So why would piercing sorrow be a sign of someone who is grabbed by the gospel?
Jesus blesses grieving and basically according to Jesus you really cant know comfort unless you grieve
The reality is that when you begin to experience the rule and reign of God in your life, it is totally different from anything else…so you begin to do things like watch the news differently
I remember watching Election results coming in on one election and they had 4 panelist up there just yelling at each other for a minute…No one could tell what they were saying…Everyone just had to yell over each other…It was childish
And I distinctly remember being sad
I was sad for the commentators that this was their life…it looked miserable
I was sad for them because they had pinned all of their hopes on the outcome of an election and for a few it didn't go their way and they were angry
I was sad for the commentators who won because of all the gloating that was happening
I was sad for the whole enterprise of what I was watching that night because a different kingdom was available to them all and yet they continually went after their own personal power kingdom…and you could just watch it all going down on TV, the more they dug into their own kingdoms…The worse off it was for them...
All you need is a kingdom perspective and it is easy to mourn over the standard practices of our world...
Jesus Mourned: In Matthew 23 we find Jesus Overlooking Jerusalem and saying

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate

When you know the goodness that God has to offer its only natural to mourn for those who don’t want it
When you know the life that God can bring…its only natural to mourn over those who choose death
So maybe your here today and your mourning…You luck bum...
You will be comforted…And just so you know that word comforted is the same word Jesus will use for Holy Spirit later on in the book of John...
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Lets keep moving to Jesus’ next statement
Matthew 5:5
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
(See Psalm 37)
I have in your notes Psalm 37…reading that psalm helps us understand Jesus’ words here...
Meekness basically means humility...
and I know that when we read blessed are the meek…you might think…I don’t want to be seen as meek!
But the word that Jesus has here is describing a person of restrained power...
A person who is always angry at the right moment time and never angry at the wrong time
Based off of Psalm 37…The Meek delight themselves in the Lord. that is they focus on the Joy of living in God.
Their Joy is doing the will of God..
and I love how the Bible says that they will inherit the earth...
Because the earth is the Lords and everything in it...
When Desiree and I Adopted Jacob we had to sign legal documents saying that he is a full Johnson child and entitled to an equal share of the inheritance of our family.
See when we place our faith and our confidence in Jesus then we are adopted as sons and daughters…All he has is ours
Because the earth is the lord’s and all that is in it...
I think this beatitude really helps us see that Jesus lived these beatitudes out...
I mean on his death on the cross the way that he took it led the roman soldiers to reply
Surely this man was the son of God
Blessed are the meek, the humbles ones who seek after God’s will.
So if your here today…And pride just rubs you the wrong way and you hate it when people make things about you…and maybe you recoil from attention...
Then Blessed are you…You lucky bum! You are like your father in heaven and you will inherit the earth
Matthew 5:6

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

This beatitude is all about having a craving for righteousness
And we need to discover what this word is a little bit…Because it is a word that we find all through the Bible
In its most basic form Righteousness means right relationships
See when you get God’s kingdom in you…You cant help but to crave righteousness for everyone else
You begin to see with a new set of eyes...
You see broken and hurting relationships and you know that a relationship with the father will fix all of these other relationships
The entire Old Testament is about Righteousness...
In fact the 10 commandments are all God’s law of righteousness
Its no wonder then that the first 4 are about right relationship to God and the last 6 are all about right relationship to one another
See when you are living in the Kingdom of God you begin to Crave God’s righteousness everywhere
You See the broken things in life and begin to just crave righteousness for them...
I feel like over the years in my ministry I am always running into people who are so willing to sabotage their business…their marriage their friendships…and when that happens I just want to reach into their lives and make them stop
People are so willing to live un-reconciled lives to each other and with God…Because resent and anger becomes their identity and what they worship
But those who crave righteousness can’t sleep till things are made right!
See when you hunger and thirst for right relationships it is very good indicator That God has a grip on your heart and that he has fundamentally transformed your own desires to his
So if you are here and you just crave for relationships to be made right…Then you are blessed…You lucky bum!
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Matthew 5:7
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Mercy is a sign that the kingdom of God has come near in your life
Because Jesus is Mercy.
You might be here today and thing, no God is vengeful…God is angry…God holds a grudge
But when you actually study the Bible and begin to see God the way he really is…we realize that God doesn't hold a grudge that he is forgiving..
That God delights in offering mercy
He delights in taking your sins as far away as the east is from the west...
Jesus is the living embodiment of God’s mercy
and this beatitude says blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy...
This is something that Jesus will repeat over and over again in his ministry...
Like hey if your going to pray…or if your going to the alter and you remember that you have a problem with someone…go forgive them quickly so you can be forgiven too.
Jesus flat out says...”forgive and you will be forgiven”
Show mercy before you come to me and ask for it!
Jesus basically says if you can practice forgiveness for others then God will forgive you too.
Our world often looks at mercy as a weakness
And if your trying to get ahead in business…you will get ahead in life by showing no mercy…You will get ahead in business by remembering people’s sins…The more ruthless you are the more financial reward you will get
But the problem is that at the end of the day…being ahead in business will be your reward.
And you will crumble at the weight of holding everyones sins against them
So blessed are you…if your knee-jerk reaction is to offer mercy instead of Judgment…You lucky bum…You’ll get the mercy of God.
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Matthew 5:8

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

To me this is one of the most exciting Beatitudes…Because of the promise attached to it…You get to see God face to face
But what does it mean to be pure in heart?
I think you see the answer to that in Children…We always say that kids are so pure right? Why?
They just say things the way they really are
I remember the first day that Emma saw a man with a face- tattoo.
That is all she wanted to talk about....she was like, what if my husband has a face tattoo
and I laughed and I said Emma you get to decide who you marry, but please don’t marry someone with a face tattoo…and she said why…And I was like, I don’t have anything against tattoos but a face tattoo just shows that you are probably making bad life choices
So I kid you not the next day we are in line at a grocery store and this super scary dude is right in front of us with lots of face tattoos…And Emma says....Daddy…he doesn’t make good life choices!
Oh so pure in heart…I’m like, Emma your going to get daddy beat up...
Psalm 24 reveals a lot about what pure in heart is
Psalm 24:3–4 ESV
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
Oh the Pure in heart care about truth…Why?
Because Jesus is the way the truth and the life
The pure in heart are never deceitful
and you know that when God’s kingdom, his rule and reign, has a grip on you…you just begin to recoil against being deceitful
The truth becomes the most impotrant thing to you...
So blessed are you when you don’t lift your soul to anything that is false
So you might read this beatitude and think, How do I become pure of heart?
And the answer is by moving closer to Jesus
When you move closer to Jesus you are closer to truth himself
The apostle Paul will use this metaphor...
God is a refining fire…The closer we move into him the more the bad stuff gets burnt off and the more God’s character is exposed through us
So Blessed are you lucky bums who care about the truth…You will see God!
Matthew 5:9

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

I love this one because it says Blessed are the peacemakers or the shalom makers…See peace in the Bible does not mean that there is no war. Peace in the Bible means wholeness...
It means all of the essential relationships are made whole
for example: The relationship between man and God…Man and woman and man and creation
Peace is a sense of wholeness...
Jesus was the ultimate peacemaker...
In the cross he endured all of our sin and shame so that we can be in right relationship with the father
Often times to be a peacemaker means that you endure suffering for others rather than inflicting it on others
Somewhere along the line we need to come to terms with the fact that the cross isn’t just the basis of our new life in christ but it is actually the pattern of our new life in christ...
It means that if we are going to follow in the way of Jesus making peace as we go, it means that we need to learn to absorb some suffering.
When you begin to follow Jesus you will realize that there is a cost to following that is a joyful and a wonderful cost
When you make peace with others you will be called a child of God because this is what Jesus does for us..
The idea is that you will look like your father in heaven the deeper and deeper you go into making peace
So if you desire wholeness for everyone around you…You are one blessed lucky bum…your just like your father in heven
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Matthew 5:10-12
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So first and foremost…This is a double beatitude
For some reason Jesus said the same thing twice.
And why would Jesus say…You will get persecuted on account of me?
Well what did Jesus do?
He kept hanging out with the wrong people
Jesus in his own team of disciples had rejected people, people who society saw no value in
The person who is writing this down, Matthew would have been seen as a Benedict Arnold of Israel…He would have been given so much trouble for following Jesus
Think about what Jesus would do to get himself in trouble
He went to a dinner party with prostitutes
He healed people on the sabbath
He forgave sinners
See when you step into God’s kingdom and take that on…You begin to do the things of Jesus.
Jesus lived such a counter cultural life that he was killed for it
If you follow in his footsteps
You will face backlash
Just declaring today that Jesus is the truth and life there is only one way to the father and its through Jesus
Well thats an exclusive statement
It doesn't fit into our culture very nicely today
To say we believe the bible when it comes to marriage…this is a radical statement that will get you canceled on social media and fired from your job...
Jesus is saying that you will face backlash for following him…Because he is all truth…and He will get in the way of the truth that the world has to offer...

Salt & Light

What I think I love most about this section of the Bible is that Jesus says all of this to people who our outside the synagogue
In some cases these are religious people
In some cases these are pagans
in some cases these are just ordinary poor people of no social standing at all
Not at all the type of people that a famous rabbi would give his first major sermon to
and to them all he says
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13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

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See what Jesus is saying is that when you live out the beatitudes is when you live out the upside-down values of God’s kingdom
When you live out these kingdom values…You embody the message
You embody the kingdom
I imagine the pharisees getting so upset by Jesus saying this to a group of peasants and pagans
Because they would would have been the salt and light
See the call of Jesus is to accept his rule and reign…his new governance that is available and when you accept that…then living out the beatitudes is just an outflow of your relationship with Jesus
and when you live out the beatitudes then you are the light of the world
You are a beacon of light for God’s kingdom
What if every single household here were a beacon of light for God’s kingdom?
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Challenge:
The challenge today is not to make a list and to change your behavior to make yourself more of something your not...
But to lean into Jesus Kingdom now..
To lean into who Jesus is now
Because he says that HE WILL MAKE YOU into a new person...
The call of Jesus today is to experience his rule and reign…and when you do you will be salt and light to this world!
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