The Beatitudes: A Summery of New Covenant Living

Introduction

Now we get into a part of the book of Matthew that we will probably be in for a while, and one that is very important to Matthew is displaying the Gospel of Christ and the nature of the new covenant to his readers.

Jesus: The New Moses

The Setting: Jesus Galilean Ministry

Jesus teaching on the OT in such a way that drew people to himself as the ultimate fulfilment of it. The covenants, the promises, the law, and the prophets had all anticipated his coming, and now he has come and brought the Kingdom.

Great crowds followed Jesus, composed of Jew intrigued by his teaching and the miraculous power with which it came and gentiles amazed by the miracles and desperate to have their own diseases healed.

When Jeses sees this crowd, he goes up a mountain, likely near Capurnaum where the hills create a natural ampetheatre, and sits down in the normal fashion of a Jewish Rabbi teaching his followers.

Flight to and return to Egypt, miraculous saving from infanticidal ruler, Baptism, wandering in the wilderness, and conquering the promised like in the peaceful power of the Spirit give us both a strong parallel and an interesting contrast with the history of Israel and the person of Moses.

Parallels and Contrasts with the old covenant

Jesus a new and better Moses.

Jesus faithful in the wildernesss.

Jesus effectively defeating the satanic powers in the world by drawing the gentiles to the promised land rather than driving them out.

A set of blessings but no curses.

Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

This fits with what we already know is a key difference between the old and new covenant

Jeremiah 31:31–33 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

A key difference between the Old covenant and the New is the fact that those in the New covenant won’t break the covenant. Therefore, curses are not needed except for those who are not truly in the New and are still in the Old, like the Pharisees who have woes pronounced on them in chapter 23.

Isaiah 61:1–3 ESV

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

The purpose: describing a new creature in a new covenant

What Jesus is doing is establishing a code of living for the new covenant. This is not a law code, but it does replace the need for the law. Old Testament law was for a people that was constantly rebelling against God, but what we read in this sermon is the loving instruction for a people that have repented and become part of the new covenant people in Christ.

What these blessings do is describe a new creature in a new covenant. Jesus is not preaching some works-based aecesticism where those who live poor and miserable can earn their way into blessings. Rather,

These attitudes characterize those who are new creations. They are poor in spirit because they don’t value material things, they mourn over their remaining sin, they are meek and not self-important, they desire righteousness above all else, they show mercy because of the mercy they have experienced, they are pure in their intensions and fully devoted to God ect.

They don’t fit in this world and so their behaviour will be confusing and unexplanable to those who are citizens of this age.

They see themselves rightly, and this manifests most often in a lowly spirit.

They act and think in a way that they know pleases their Lord.

The Audience

Finally, we get to the audience that Jesus is addressing.

The Disciples

The Crowds

Conclusion