Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon: FCC Marianna 1-16-2022

The Beatitudes - "Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek"

Scripture: Matthew 5:3-5

Today we continue our survey through Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount.

Remember, surveying the Scriptures is the idea of digging into the Word, examining what ends up in our hands, then sifting through it to find the nuggets of truth and wisdom that the Holy Spirit is sharing, and storing those things away for further examination later on.

Last week was our introduction to the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, the Beatitudes being Jesus' description of what the life of His disciple should look like.

We shared this quote from Mark Besh: "If you sow the Beatitudes, you will reap the Fruits of the Spirit."

A life that lives out the Beatitudes is a life that is a reflection and example of Christ's life- our calling as Believers is to live out true discipleship; in other words, people should be able to see that we are the disciples of Jesus because they can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our actions and our attitudes.

The Beatitudes present to us the characteristics of the ideal citizen of the Kingdom of God.

Each Beatitude contains three parts: the promise of God's blessing here on earth for those who accomplish these things, God's call to action (our part that we strive to accomplish), and the eternal reward for the accomplishment.

Each Beatitude spells out the internal qualities, the ideal character, which will influence our external behaviors and actions, that Jesus builds for us to model our lives after; this is contrary to what the world expects, because the world, including the Pharisees of Jesus' day, concern themselves with the external qualities- the pretense of holiness without a heart that strives after God's holiness.

Read Matthew 5:3-5 here: Pray here!

Main point: The Beatitude man is one that the world does not understand, which is why the world is so opposed to Christians who actually live out their faith authentically.

-The world cannot understand someone who acts like Jesus in a real, tangible way and with no ulterior motives.

Its why Paul describes us in 1 Cor.

4:9-10 as being "displayed like men condemned to die" and as "a spectacular to the world" and "fools for Christ."

What we know and understand as wisdom, living for Christ, the world can only understand as foolishness.

John MacArthur, in his book The Jesus You Can't Ignore, describes the Beatitudes as the description of "the true nature of saving faith."

That's such an apt description, because the Sermon on the Mount, as you remember from last week, is Jesus spelling out the playbook for what the Kingdom of God should look like and how those of us who claim its citizenship should act and behave to demonstrate our saving faith.

The Beatitudes are not individual characteristics that we should attempt to collect, or some kind of achievement that we should notch on our belts, or some kind of token to be cashed in for a reward- as in, "I achieved Pure in heart!

Now I get the blessing and have punched my ticket into the Kingdom of Heaven!"

No, rather, we are examining the attributes that Jesus prescribes for those who will be His followers.

They are not individual accomplishments, but the culmination of characteristics of what a Believer should look like!

The three Beatitudes that we are going to examine this morning are a glimpse of the overall picture of what Jesus expects from the behaviors and attitudes of those who would be His disciples and those who would be effective in gaining the Kingdom of God- specifically by being involved in growing and expanding it.

Point #1 "Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."

-There is a reason that poor in spirit is the first of the Beatitudes.

It is safe to assume that Jesus did not order these randomly.

It is safe to say that there is a logical spiritual sequence to be found in the Beatitudes, making this first one the key to the rest that follow.

Being poor in spirit must come first because there is no entry into the Kingdom of Heaven apart from it.

There is no one in the Kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit, because you cannot humble yourself and surrender your life to Christ's authority without first experiencing this spiritual deficit.

-The poor in spirit are those who know that they have no spiritual resource of their own.

The Greek word here for poor is not the idea of the person who has to scrape to provide for himself; it is the description of someone in absolute and abject spiritual poverty- the person who has nothing at all, who is poverty-stricken, who has no ability to provide for himself or make his situation better.

This description of the person who is poor in spirit is the description of us before we put our faith in Christ.

We are in the abject poverty of our own sins and we have no way to make our situation any better on our own!

The person who is poor in spirit is one who acknowledges their own helplessness and the fact that they have no ability to please God or to come back into right relationship with the Father.

This person understands their spiritual need to rely on God to have their most basic need- that of salvation- to be fulfilled, and that apart from God's generosity, we have no chance at all.

-Jesus places this Beatitude first, communicating to us, as well as those who listened to His sermon and all those who have come in between, this truth: there is no being Jesus' disciple, no opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God, without first coming to the place of spiritual poverty.

It's why Jesus told the rich, young ruler in Mark 10:17 to go and give everything he owned and THEN to come and follow Him- and the young man walked away dismayed.

The physical wealth is not the part that tripped the man up; it is the humility that would have accompanied no longer being a rich man.

But the humility must come before surrender is possible.

Being a Beatitude man is not simply about being humble, though.

Humility, of course, should be the spiritual fruit that comes from surrendering to Christ, but the embodiment of this Beatitude is about coming to a place of surrender and giving up trying to figure things out on your own.

Only that person can be a disciple of Christ; only that person will truly see God's blessings; only that person will find that God that God has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to them; only the person who comes to that place of surrender has any hope of understanding the rest of these Beatitudes or bearing the fruits of the Spirit.

Point #2 Blessed are those who mourn.

They shall be comforted.

This Beatitude is two-fold.

There is the spiritual aspect: blessed are those who mourn because of their sins that have separated them from God- they will be comforted because God will draw them back into right relationship with Himself.

But there is also a social aspect to this, because in Jesus' day, there was a grossly inappropriate phenomenon going on: families would pay professional mourners to attend funerals and to walk before the funeral processions, wailing as loudly as possible, in order to impress others- it was used as a way to increase a family's social status- trying to impress others by showing how loved they were and much they would be missed.

-From this social perspective, there are several lessons that we can learn from authentic mourning, not at all to speak of simply putting aside the desire to use the death of a loved one to elevate one's social status.

Authentic mourning can show us the kindness and brotherhood of our fellow man.

Authentic mourning also teaching us how to rest in the comfort and compassion that God makes available to us.

-Many a man, in his hour of deep sorrow and great need of comfort and peace has discovered God in a way that he never had before.

[Share: This is my story.

It was in the deep desperation of losing my brother that I ran to God for answers, for comfort and peace, for some kind of security, and I found what I was looking for- God took my tender, wounded heart and comforted me and gave me peace.

But what I found in God was something deeper.

I found my personal faith and an authentic connection with the Father, because I allowed myself to mourn and to be comforted by the Father.]

-Don't make a show of your sorrow, but don't lock it away and keep it to yourself, either.

-From the spiritual aspect of this Beatitude is another that the world finds utterly ridiculous.

"Blessed/ happy are those who are in mourning?"

The idea is an anathema to the world because the philosophy of the world is: forget your troubles, turn your back on them, don't face them; you've got enough trouble without looking for more!

But Jesus says, "Take a deep examination of the things that have separated you from the Father, those things that wound His heart, those things that I will take on My shoulders in order for you to find salvation and right relationship with the Father."

Keep those things in your mind.

Mourn the things that you have allowed to wound the Father's heart, and allow that mourning to help keep you from ever returning to that place!

The sorrow that Believer's experience is one that is based on our fellowship with Jesus.

The closer we grow to Jesus, the more we feel the hurt and pain that our sins caused to Him.

And the closer that we get to Jesus, the more comfort we experience from Jesus as we become His disciples, live out the Beatitudes, and help bring more and more people into the Kingdom.

Point #3 Blessed are the meek.

They will inherit the earth.

-The word meek generally evokes images of someone who is weak, spineless, mousy, easy to push around, but that is not an accurate depiction at all.

The accurate picture is Jesus.

It is a picture of unlimited power that is under complete control.

Jesus had the authority to bring to the earth a cataclysm of spiritual power, and that's just in the legion of angels under His command.

Not to even mention that He created the universe and had that power at His disposal.

Of course, we see the evidence of this in His miracles: changing the molecular structure of water to change it into wine or to support His body weight, commanding the storm to calm, disappearing from sight, healing others, commanding demons, etc. Jesus was the ultimate source of power and strength, but it was always under control and never abused.

A few definitions of meekness give us another look at this characteristic that we are supposed to embody: "Righteous anger at the correct times; never angry at the wrong times."

and "Every instinct, every impulse, every passion under control.

Entirely self-controlled."

-We are called to meekness, not weakness.

We are called to be strength under control.

We will see this again in a few weeks when we cover "Blessed are the peacemakers."

We are called to have authority power in Christ, without abusing it.

We are called to wield power and strength while still showing gentleness.

-Again, we see the implication of the quote: "If you sow the Beatitudes, you will reap the Fruits of the Spirit."

When we begin to live out the Godly characteristics found in the Beatitudes, we see that we naturally begin to be more self-controlled.

Being self-controlled is the key to producing all the rest of the Fruits of the Spirit.

Question: What does this mean for you?

-Understanding this calling to be a person of Godly character is vital to understanding and fulfilling our call to make disciples.

No one wants to be a disciple of someone who they see is not authentic to what they say is most important.

No one will want to be a disciple of someone whose disciples are constantly arguing and are not demonstrating the Godliness that they have been called to.

Invitation: