The Beatitudes.

Steve Gentry

[0:06] Good morning. [0:06] Welcome to Village Church. [0:08] If this is your first time here, my name is Steve, one of the pastors here at Village [0:10] Church. [0:11] And as always, I’m thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:14] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Matthew chapter 5.

[0:18] We’re going to be starting there this morning. [0:20] And so we’re in the same series, but we’re starting kind of a different aspect of that [0:26] series this morning. [0:27] And we’re going to be going through for the next many weeks the Sermon on the Mount. [0:32] And so the Sermon on the Mount is often understood as just the Beatitudes portion, but that’s [0:37] not actually accurate.

[0:39] The Sermon on the Mount is actually Matthew 5 through Matthew 7, so it’s all three chapters [0:44] where Jesus is unpacking a really exhaustive teaching where Matthew really summarizes the [0:53] total teaching of what Jesus has to offer us in these three chapters. [0:58] And he begins with an interesting place because he’s been going through Galilee teaching, [1:05] he’s been preaching, he’s been healing, and now he enters into a place where he’s going [1:10] to teach exhaustively really what it means to live a life of faith between God and man.

[1:19] He’s going to present to you what it means to have a relationship with God. [1:25] And it really is different than what most people and most of us really think about [1:30] our lives because we are kind of conditioned but also have a default mode in this life [1:37] of seeking and living out things that are very different than the Beatitudes, very different [1:44] than what Jesus says. [1:45] This is what the blessed life looks like.

[1:47] This is the life that you need to follow after. [1:51] And in that, there is a hard truth that every one of us needs to see that time and time [1:57] again Jesus is going to come back to over these three chapters. [2:01] And that is that you are more sinful than you think you are. [2:07] And just when you think that you’ve reached the level of I understand my sinfulness, Jesus [2:12] is going to challenge that and he’s going to give you some notions that you are far

[2:18] worse off than you think. [2:20] He never lets up. [2:21] He never says that you’re better than you think you are. [2:24] He never says feel good about yourself. [2:26] Instead he comes to us and he says, Oh, you think you’ve done well by not committing [2:28] adultery?

[2:29] Well, have you ever had lust in your heart? [2:31] Oh, you think you’re doing great because you haven’t killed anyone? [2:33] Well, have you ever had hate in your heart towards your brother? [2:36] And so Jesus gives us an uncommon ethic in these passages and he begins in this section [2:42] by dealing with the relationship that you have with God. [2:47] And that’s all that he’s going to deal with.

[2:49] These are not ethics that you’re going to be able to put into place in your life. [2:54] These are not things that you’re going to be able to turn to to say, I’m a good person. [2:58] I’m doing good things. [2:59] Instead, everything in this section serves to show where you fall short from the design [3:05] that your Creator has for you and how much you need God to do a transforming work in [3:12] your life.

[3:14] And I want to begin by reading in chapter 5 verse 1. [3:17] Here’s what we read. [3:19] It says,

[3:29] And it says,

[3:35] And what’s different about the way that we often think about this passage, if you’re [3:39] familiar with like the Billy Graham Crusades and, you know, speaking in front of masses [3:43] and masses of people, that’s often how we think about the Sermon on the Mountain. [3:47] And I think chapter, excuse me, verse 1 challenges that notion because it treats it more like [3:53] a small group than it does he’s speaking to the entire crowd. [3:56] And the reason for that is, these are his disciples.

[4:00] They are the ones that are ready to receive this message. [4:03] The masses are not looking to receive this message. [4:07] So it says that he sits and his disciples come to him. [4:10] They gather around him and in verse 2,

[4:23] It’s just blessed. [4:25] All right, that’s all it is.

[4:55] Blester you when others revile you, persecute you, utter all kinds of evil against you, [5:00] falsely on my account. [5:02] Rejoice, be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets [5:09] who were before you. [5:13] What’s interesting that I want you to see is the posture that Jesus takes and the posture [5:20] that he tells us we are supposed to take.

[5:23] And so number one is going to be all about Jesus. [5:24] It’s going to be what we see in verses 1 and 2. [5:27] Jesus is the better Moses. [5:30] Jesus is the better Moses. [5:32] And so when you read about the book of Matthew, Matthew was pointed towards a Jewish audience. [5:39] And so because of that, Matthew goes to some great strains to actually show some parallels

[5:45] between the life of Jesus and the life of Moses. [5:49] Even all the way back to the birth, the record of the birth of Jesus, what you see is that [5:53] Jesus is born and the king immediately tries to kill him. [5:56] And that’s parallel to what goes on in Matthew’s life. [5:59] And then on and on you see more parallels and more parallels from the 40 days fasting [6:05] to 40 years in the wilderness to the nation of Israel going into the promised land and

[6:11] conquering their enemies, to Jesus conquering all sorts of diseases, to right here where [6:17] if you are a Jewish reader, you will notice the vernacular that’s going on here. [6:23] When he says that Jesus went up on the mountain, it is meant to draw your memory back to Mount [6:31] Sinai, to where Moses went up on the mountain. [6:35] Except the difference here is that Moses went up to receive the law. [6:40] Jesus goes up to give the law.

[6:44] And so these parallels stop when we begin to think of the things that Moses had to [6:50] do in comparison to just who Jesus is. [6:54] Jesus didn’t need to go to experience the presence of God to take back down. [6:58] Jesus was God. [7:00] Therefore anyone with him was immediately in the presence of God. [7:05] Jesus did not have to receive an authoritative word from God to offer to the people who were

[7:11] below. [7:11] Rather, Jesus just spoke, and that was the authoritative word that Jesus had to offer. [7:18] And so when it says that Jesus went up on the mountain, it is necessarily pointing [7:21] you to his authority over all things, because he is condescending to speak to those who [7:29] would hear him. [7:30] And he’s speaking in an authoritative way, and he’s not giving them a new law that they

[7:40] have misunderstood the law and that everything in the law is about how they fall short of [7:48] God’s glory. [7:49] And he points them immediately in this passage because they had been thinking about measuring [7:55] their righteousness from everything that was on the external. [7:58] I mean, we’re in the middle of the pharisaical tradition here. [8:01] Those who would ensure everyone in the culture was doing the right things, following the

[8:06] right things at the right times all the time. [8:10] And Jesus comes and he gives a different understanding, because they were even stapling [8:16] their prayers to their clothes, the Pharisees were, so that everyone could see how prayerful [8:20] they were. [8:21] Jesus is going to remark in a few weeks talking about fasting. [8:24] He’s going to say that you even make yourselves really sullen when you’re fasting so that

[8:28] everyone will know just how righteous you are, because you’re like, I am so hungry, [8:31] I haven’t eaten in so long, I’m fasting.

[8:35] That’s why Lent is bogus, because you’re not supposed to tell everyone. [8:40] And giving up Facebook is not fasting, by the way.

[8:44] Just to give you a little tidbit, I mean, you can give up Facebook, you’ll probably [8:47] be better for it, but it’s not like fasting. [8:51] Fasting is literally you are hungry. [8:54] Why? [8:56] Food. [8:56] That was for free.

[8:57] All right. [8:59] Now, some of you are like, but it makes me more holy.

[9:02] The reality that you’ve got to deal with is that Jesus is coming with an uncommon authority [9:09] to tell you that the way that he measures righteousness is different than the way that [9:14] human beings measure righteousness, because what you do on the external can be seen by [9:21] others, but the reason for which you are doing what you are doing cannot be known by others. [9:28] You can do the right things and have all the wrong motivations. [9:33] You can have the right actions, and nobody knows why you’re doing it.

[9:39] And Jesus comes and he gives this different interpretation, but it’s the same thing, [9:45] except what he’s saying is there’s only two people that know the root of your life, you [9:53] and God. [9:53] Because everything that he talks about in the Beatitudes are things that are going [9:58] on inside of you. [10:00] There are things that are going on inside of your mind.

[10:03] There are things that are going on with your motivations. [10:06] There are things that are going on with the way that you are thinking, and Jesus is revealing [10:10] to us, and he’s even going to go further in when he gets more specific when he talks [10:14] about hating people, he talks about lust, he’s going to say that the truth of who you [10:20] are is what is going on inside of you. [10:23] So, if you want the life that God has for you, you are going to have to posture your

[10:30] life differently. [10:33] And Jesus comes with authority. [10:35] In Deuteronomy chapter 18, Moses himself even says that another prophet is going to come [10:42] and in verse 18, it says that this prophet will speak the very words of God. [10:47] Then in John chapter 6 verse 14, the Israelites, the Jews in that culture, they even looked [10:53] to the words that Jesus said and they said, this is the prophet.

[10:57] In other words, he is the fulfillment of what Moses said was going to happen in Deuteronomy [11:01] chapter 18. [11:02] Well, Jesus is inhabiting that office right here. [11:06] So that people will understand that just as Moses went up to the mountain in Exodus 19, [11:11] Jesus is on the mountain in Matthew chapter 5, but with an uncommon authority. [11:19] Moses was seen by Israel as being their Redeemer, their Deliverer, and their Savior in the

[11:24] Old Testament. [11:25] And Jesus is showing that he’s the better Redeemer, he’s the better Deliverer, he is [11:29] the better Savior. [11:31] He’s not demeaning Moses, but instead he is saying that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything [11:37] that Moses set out to do. [11:40] They didn’t need to be redeemed out of the bondage to the Pharaoh, instead they needed

[11:48] to be redeemed from their sin. [11:50] They did not need to be delivered out of the Kingdom of Egypt, they needed to be delivered [11:55] out of the Kingdom of this world and into the Kingdom of Heaven. [11:58] They did not need to be saved from the tyrannical reign of Pharaoh, they needed to be saved [12:04] from the wrath of God over their sins. [12:07] And that is exactly what Jesus brings us in this passage.

[12:10] And he brings it to us in such a way that they will understand that the things that [12:16] need to be blessings in your lives are things that are going to have to be a new creation. [12:21] There is a temptation to look at the Beatitudes and think, okay, these are some things that [12:26] I need to begin to put into practice into my life. [12:28] And I understand that notion, but that’s not the context that Jesus is talking about. [12:32] Jesus is not even talking about something that you need to repent towards.

[12:37] Instead, Jesus is going to point out over and over again, these are things that are [12:40] completely impossible. [12:43] You cannot do these things. [12:46] You cannot live up to this standard. [12:49] You are hopeless, therefore the Beatitudes are things that must be received by you. [12:58] And so the only way that you can have these in your life is if your life has been transformed

[13:05] by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. [13:07] The only way that this can happen in your life is if you have become part of the new [13:12] creation by the power of the Holy Spirit. [13:16] God wants to do a work, but these are not a law to live up to instead. [13:22] They are a hope and change to receive from God. [13:27] And that leads us to number two this morning, the Beatitudes reveal the blessings of salvation.

[13:35] The Beatitudes reveal the blessings of salvation. [13:40] For the audience of Matthew, they understood the law as it was proposed to them by the [13:44] Pharisees, but Jesus keeps pointing them to the heart of why you do what you do and noting [13:51] that the change that you need is far deeper than you think that it is. [13:58] You can’t do it. [14:00] When he looks to them, and I love this one because I’ve never killed anyone, I mean

[14:05] never, literally, never. [14:09] Killed lots of animals, but they deserved it. [14:12] Every single one of them, especially the snakes. [14:16] And some of you all keep coming at me about the snake thing. [14:18] All right, you know, like you just, the venomous ones kill, but the rest of them are just [14:22] these wonderful little creatures and you need to leave them.

[14:24] No, I decapitate every snake I see and I will not stop. [14:32] Deal with it. [14:34] All right, if we got a part, I’m just saying, I’m going to kill the snake. [14:40] My property, my rules. [14:41] All right, I’ve got my own little sub-kingdom. [14:44] But anyway, anyway, just kidding, just kidding.

[14:49] But Jesus continues to point to the heart of the change that you need because you cannot [14:55] live to God’s standards. [14:56] And that’s the point of the gospel. [14:58] Look at the things that he points to here. [15:00] Poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity, [15:08] peacemaking, even persecution.

[15:12] These are all postures of the heart. [15:15] And when you look at a lot of this list, these most of the time aren’t even things that [15:19] you want in your life. [15:20] Who wants to be poor in spirit?

[15:24] Who wants to be meek? [15:25] That looks like weakness. [15:27] Who wants to mourn? [15:30] And you look at these like, but you know, I do want a hunger and thirst after righteousness. [15:33] Have you ever considered what righteousness is when you think about those things?

[15:39] These are not the ideals of this world. [15:43] This is the antithesis of everything that this world is going to tell you that you [15:48] need to be about and that you need to be like. [15:50] And the only way that you can inhabit this is if you have faith that transcends the [15:55] boundaries of what this world are going to mark around you. [15:58] This world is going to tell you, never show weakness.

[16:00] This world is going to tell you that you need to be strong on every occasion. [16:03] This world is going to tell you that you need to hide the truth, that you need to [16:08] fake it until you make it. [16:11] This world is going to tell you to lie. [16:14] And Jesus is going to tell you that there is someone you cannot lie to.

[16:21] He’s saying that there is a standard that God has for you where he knows the truth. [16:25] He knows what’s going on inside of you. [16:27] And you can convince a thousand people of the lie, but there is a God who knows what [16:33] is going on inside of you. [16:35] And he says you need to live by a different standard. [16:38] And it’s an honest standard.

[16:39] It’s a standard in which you are bankrupt unless he intervenes and does a changing [16:45] work in your life.

[16:50] In Isaiah 61, one, there’s a prophecy about Jesus talking about Jesus. [16:57] He says, The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring [17:02] good news to the poor. [17:05] He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the [17:10] opening of the prison to those who are bound. [17:12] You see, in the Old Testament, they had a different notion of what the term poor meant

[17:16] than we have. [17:17] And that is what Jesus is getting to. [17:19] See, when we read this passage, there’s a temptation for us to think the wealthy need [17:24] to give to the poor, those who lack material. [17:27] But in Hebrew culture, the word poor had a far more robust understanding. [17:31] And it didn’t stop at material wealth because they understood that being materially wealthy

[17:39] was not the ultimate measure. [17:41] When they would say the word poor, there was an understanding that there was a notion [17:46] of needing God to do a work in your life. [17:50] And so when he says, I have come to give good news to the poor, he’s saying I’ve come to [17:58] do the work that only God can do because you need a work of God. [18:05] And so when Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit, something that all of us, if we

[18:12] live by the standards of this world, we reject the notion that there’s anything blessed [18:18] about being poor, Jesus says, and right there is your problem.

[18:26] You measure blessing by the standards of this world.

[18:33] The biggest issue that I think we have in suburbia is that when we get up in the morning [18:39] from our bed and we look at our house and we look at our car and we look at all of the [18:45] things around us in our lives, we think one of two things. [18:49] We think either A, I am blessed or B, if I just had more, I would be blessed.

[18:59] And that right there shows you that our standards are not the same as God’s standards.

[19:05] Jesus informs them that blessing is not about all that this world has to offer you. [19:12] Blessing is about all that God has to offer you.

[19:17] It’s fascinating. [19:18] Hashtag blessed. [19:19] I love it, man.

[19:22] But typically when we think hashtag blessed, what do we think about? [19:25] We think about that free latte we got at Starbucks because they messed my order up, [19:29] right? [19:30] You know, we think about somebody paid the toll in front of us, you know, hashtag blessed. [19:34] You know, everything went our way, hashtag blessed. [19:37] Look at my salad, hashtag blessed.

[19:41] All right. [19:41] And let’s really think, what is wrong with us? [19:45] Like, we’ve all lost our minds. [19:47] I don’t care if you eat avocado toast. [19:51] Why would I? [19:52] Like, I’m sure it tastes great.

[19:54] I’ve never personally had it. [19:56] I like peanut butter and jelly. [19:57] All right. [19:58] I’m 80s hashtag blessed. [20:01] Some of y’all 2019 hashtag blessed. [20:04] But avocado toast is nothing more than a glorified peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

[20:10] All right. [20:10] And yes, it’s blessings. [20:12] All right. [20:12] I’m not trying to take that away from you, but get over it. [20:16] And the thing about the way that we look at blessings is, is that we think about what [20:22] this world can fill.

[20:24] God thinks about what only he can fill. [20:27] And that when we think hashtag blessed, we need to begin to transcend the boundaries [20:34] of physical creation into the kingdom of heaven and say, when God says he wants to [20:41] bless me, what does he mean by that in total? [20:47] Let me tell you, there’s no possession that I own that did not come from God. [20:51] Everything that I have in my life, materially speaking, does come from God.

[20:56] But those things can very quickly replace my yearning for God unless I realize exactly [21:03] what God wants me to get to in my life. [21:06] And when he says blessed are the poor in spirit, he’s telling me you need to take a posture [21:12] where you are dependent on God and you are not dependent on things. [21:18] You are not dependent on people. [21:20] You are not dependent on fame, power, the way other people see you.

[21:25] You are not dependent on the things that this world has to offer you because this world [21:29] is fading. [21:31] And he says blessed are the poor in spirit. [21:37] You see, that is why Jesus has the ability to point to blessings when these beatitudes [21:43] are about needs.

[21:46] What’s fascinating also is that we oftentimes will look at the beatitudes, and maybe you’ve [21:50] done this, and we’ll say instead of blessed, happy. [21:54] In the original language, that term blessed can be translated happy. [21:59] The problem with it is, is not that it’s a bad translation. [22:02] The problem is, is the way that we look at the term happy. [22:05] Because our definition of happy is usually everything’s going my way.

[22:10] Everything’s going exactly the way that I envisioned it because when things don’t [22:14] go the way that I envisioned it, I am not happy. [22:17] All right? [22:18] And neither are you. [22:19] But what God has to offer us is something different. [22:22] When he says that we are happy in these things because we have redefined happy from our plans

[22:28] and our vision to God’s plans and his vision, to exactly what he had in mind for our lives [22:36] all along. [22:37] Look at the way David wrote in Psalm 86, 1 through 5. [22:40] He said, incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me. [22:43] I am poor and needy. [22:46] David was not materially poor.

[22:49] So he had to mean something else by that. [22:52] He said, preserve my life. [22:53] I am godly. [22:54] Save your servant who trusts in you. [22:56] You are my God. [22:57] Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.

[23:02] Gladden the soul of your servant. [23:04] For to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. [23:07] For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

[23:16] See, what is David doing? [23:19] He’s looking at his relationship with God and nothing else. [23:26] That is why when I see people weaponize the Beatitudes, I know that you’re missing it. [23:32] And I see this happen all the time, and I’m sure you’ve done this, [23:36] where you will look at the Beatitudes and then you will immediately begin to think of someone who needs to live out the Beatitudes.

[23:43] When you do that, you miss everything that the Apostle is talking about, excuse me, that Jesus is talking about. [23:49] You miss it all, because these are not meant to be measuring sticks for you to judge someone else’s righteousness. [23:58] This is a message from Jesus to you alone. [24:03] And when you point this to someone else, all that you are revealing is your own bankruptcy [24:12] and inability to deal with what God has to say about your life. [24:18] So do not have the audacity to say, oh, this person really needs to read this.

[24:22] They’re not very merciful.

[24:26] Do you realize that in that breath, you have set yourself up above that person, [24:32] and you yourself are not being merciful to that person? [24:36] So if you ever use this to point to someone else, all that you’re doing is showing your own bankruptcy, [24:43] where the Sermon on the Mount is concerned. [24:46] They are directly from God into your life, but they are also about what God wants to gift into your life. [24:56] In verses 4, verse 6, verse 7, and verse 9, we see what are called divine passives.

[25:03] God will comfort, God will fill, God will show mercy, and God will call them His sons or children. [25:13] See, these are things that God is saying, I will do. [25:17] These are not things that you will accomplish. [25:19] These are not things that you can earn. [25:22] These are things that by grace, God wants to do. [25:27] So Jesus is ultimately speaking about our total inability to save ourselves.

[25:32] And believe it or not, that is good news, if He actually intends to save us. [25:37] And He does. [25:39] Verse 5 is pivotal. [25:40] Verse 5 is often misunderstood because in verse 5, He begins to talk about meekness. [25:46] And He says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. [25:49] Now oftentimes when we read this, the reason I say we misread it is because we will try to think of someone that’s quiet.

[25:55] And we’ll say, they are so meek. [25:58] They’re just so quiet. [26:00] Understand that most serial killers are also very quiet people. [26:04] And so this isn’t talking about just being quiet. [26:07] There are some crazy introverts out there. [26:10] And I know I’m rocking some introvert worlds because you’re like, that was my hope.

[26:14] All right. [26:14] I’m sorry. [26:16] I’m sorry. [26:16] All right. [26:17] It’s not true. [26:19] In verse 3, when He talks about the poor in spirit, He’s talking about a posture of dependence that you need God to give into your life.

[26:28] Verse 5, that term for me can also be translated as humble. [26:32] But the actual idea behind the phrase is submission. [26:38] It’s one thing to be dependent. [26:41] In other words, you need to receive. [26:44] It’s another thing to submit and say, I must obey. [26:50] See, He’s saying that the vision that God has for my life is the vision that I want to live out because only God can fulfill my need.

[26:59] He says, start with being dependent, then move on to being in submission to the vision of God for your life. [27:06] This is about my sense of need and what it’s going to take to fulfill my need. [27:13] I have nothing to offer God. [27:17] You want to know if you’re living that meek life, well, here’s the deal. [27:21] What is your sense of need producing out of your life? [27:25] What is the outpour of your life actually producing in this world, in your sphere of influence, in your life?

[27:39] Because that is how you measure this. [27:41] I mean, is your version of Christianity benefiting anyone else?

[27:48] Is it serving as a benefit to others? [27:51] Well, then how can you say you’ve submitted to a God who totally lives to benefit others? [27:57] And see, we need to begin to think through what Jesus has done and the creation that He wants to work into my life. [28:06] Do you want righteousness?

[28:09] Well, where’s the only place to find righteousness? [28:12] Jesus. [28:13] See, you hunger and thirst for it because you don’t have it, but Jesus does, and He wants to give. [28:19] Mercy is then juxtaposed. [28:22] All right. [28:23] This is fascinating because He said, blessed are the merciful, they shall receive mercy.

[28:28] That’s not usually the way that we think about mercy. [28:30] See, mercy is something that I give because I’m better. [28:34] See, mercy is something that if someone needs my mercy, it’s because I’m stronger. [28:39] If someone needs my mercy, it’s because they’ve wronged me, the judge. [28:43] It’s because they need something that I have to offer. [28:48] But then Jesus totally wrecks that vision when He says, they shall receive mercy.

[28:54] So because so many of the problems that you are having in this life, specifically where other people are concerned, [29:00] is because you believe everyone is in debt to you. [29:03] You believe that everyone needs something from you. [29:06] And if they don’t live up to your standard, if they don’t live up to what you need to give them, [29:12] if they don’t do as you have designed for them to do, then they need your mercy. [29:21] And it’s up to you as to whether or not you give them the mercy that they so desperately need from you.

[29:30] And Jesus flips that because He says, if you’re giving mercy, the only type of mercy that you could possibly have [29:37] that anyone could ever need is the mercy that you’ve received from God. [29:44] And if you’ve received mercy from God, you will liberally give it to others. [29:51] You will liberally forgive. You will liberally be generous with your life. [29:59] But you see, that’s not how we live. [30:01] We believe that we are the ones that dish out mercy at our thought process.

[30:09] And Jesus is challenging that. [30:12] See, this is for free. It’s not in my notes. [30:15] So it’s good news. [30:16] But a couple of years ago, I was reading Ephesians, because I love the book of Ephesians. [30:21] I love studying the book of Ephesians. [30:23] And He spends so many chapters building this amazing theology of the church.

[30:28] I mean, just an amazing ecclesiology in the book of Ephesians. [30:33] But then when He begins to get through that and He begins to just build and build and build to the way that this is going to transform my life, [30:40] in Ephesians 432, He gives us the simplest of conclusions. [30:45] He says, be kind. Be tenderhearted. Be forgiving. [30:55] Why? [30:55] Because God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you.

[31:01] So in the middle of this amazing treatise on the Church of Jesus Christ, the eternal plan of God, [31:07] He says, you are no more living out the vision of the church than when the mercy that you have so richly received from God [31:17] pours through your life into the lives of others.

[31:25] So how are you treating people?

[31:30] How are you lording people’s need for you to forgive them over other people? [31:39] Blessed are the merciful. [31:42] Only the pure in heart will see God.

[31:47] And I’m not pure. [31:50] Think about that. [31:52] Neither are you.

[31:55] But the amazing nature of what Jesus has done is He has prepared me to read a phrase like that. [32:02] Because He’s already told me, you take the posture of need. [32:07] You take the posture of receiving. [32:10] And He will give the gift of purity. [32:14] He will give the gift of the presence of God into my life. [32:19] You see, the Beatitudes are ultimately about my spiritual vitality.

[32:23] Vitality is a word that means the abundance of life. [32:27] How much life do you actually have? [32:29] How much of God are you actually experiencing in the every day? [32:36] And you need to measure it by what Jesus is talking about here. [32:40] Because it’s not because these things are just these activities that you commit to and God’s going to do these amazing works. [32:45] If you’re doing these amazing works, no, these are all things that you receive.

[32:48] These are all things that God says He’s going to do for you. [32:51] But then as you live out these lives, as you live out this meekness, this righteousness, this forgiveness, [32:58] this mercy, this poverty, this mourning, God is saying He’s going to build a life worth living. [33:07] And this world is going to see a very uncommon faith being produced in you. [33:16] Where you may never reach the heights of worldly fame that you want, worldly accolades that you want, [33:23] worldly esteem that you want.

[33:25] You may never have the amount of materials that you think you want or you need, [33:31] but you know that you are blessed because you have God, because you will see God, [33:40] because your kingdom is not of this world.

[33:48] But thirdly, expect resistance.

[33:52] What’s interesting about the end of the Sermon on the Mount is how different it is, excuse me, [33:56] the end of the Beatitudes is how different it is than the rest of the Beatitudes. [34:01] Because He spends all of this time me posturing myself towards God, [34:07] but then He talks about the way others are going to posture towards Me. [34:11] Note what He says. [34:13] He says in verse 10,

[34:14] And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [34:19] Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. [34:25] And then in verse 12, He says,

[34:35] It’s an odd way to end it, I think. [34:38] But it’s important. [34:39] Because the Beatitudes represent the antithesis of this world. [34:46] The Beatitudes represent the antithesis of what this world is going to tell you to seek. [34:51] The Beatitudes represent the antithesis of the way that this world measures success. [34:56] And what Jesus wants us to understand is that if you are going to posture yourself towards God,

[35:03] in the way that God has designed for you to do, expect the world to resist you. [35:11] Expect the world to insult you. [35:14] Expect the world to not understand the values that are from another kingdom.

[35:22] That’s why He says, Rejoice!

[35:26] Because your reward is great in heaven.

[35:30] But I will tell you that there is a caution here that when you rejoice, [35:35] don’t believe it’s because your reward will necessarily be great in this earth. [35:40] Because it may not be.

[35:43] Your reward may be that people misunderstand you, that people are persecuting you, [35:48] that people are coming against you, that people think you’re an idiot, [35:51] that your own family will reject you because you’ve given your allegiance to the kingdom of heaven, [35:57] and it takes your allegiance away from some things in this world, [36:01] where you’re making decisions that other people are looking at you, [36:03] and you’re saying you’re going to invest your time, your effort, your money, your life into those things.

[36:09] That’s not going to pay off in this life. [36:11] And you will say, I know!

[36:16] Because my reward is great in heaven!

[36:24] My reward is not about this world.

[36:28] My reward is Jesus.

[36:34] See, it sets you up to be prepared for hard times. [36:39] In John 15, Jesus puts it this way. [36:42] He says, Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. [36:47] If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. [36:50] If they kept my word, they would also keep yours. [36:54] Jesus is letting them know.

[36:56] You’re going to receive a lot of the same treatment that he did. [37:01] They killed him. [37:02] They beat him. [37:04] They persecuted him. [37:05] They disbelieved him. [37:07] But in John 16, just one chapter later,

[37:12] Jesus looks to them and he says,

[37:16] I’m going to give you peace, but it’s going to be in the middle of tribulation. [37:21] That’s uncommon, isn’t it? [37:22] That you would actually have peace in the middle of tribulation, John 16 tells us.

[37:29] Why can I have peace in the middle of the tribulation, in the middle of the persecution? [37:34] Because Jesus says, I have overcome the world. [37:39] How did he overcome the world? [37:40] He rose from the dead.

[37:44] But he had to die first.

[37:49] And none of us want that. [37:50] The scripture doesn’t tell us to seek that, by the way. [37:53] But the scripture tells us to be prepared. [37:56] I haven’t in my life experienced a great deal of persecution because of my faith. [38:01] I don’t think anyone in our land has because we’re blessed with freedoms. [38:05] But the days could come.

[38:07] I am not a prophet, so I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few years or in the next decades to come. [38:14] But I know that this world, by and large, will not understand the Kingdom of Heaven coming out of my life and going into the lives of other people. [38:26] And Jesus says, don’t worry about that.

[38:31] Let him worry about that. [38:33] Because if you submit to the Kingdom of Heaven, if you submit to the new creation that God wants to root into your life that will come out of your life, [38:42] he says your reward will be great and just trust him with what that reward will be. [38:49] There will be people that will see your posture towards God and say, I need that. [38:55] I want that. [38:57] I need the same faith that you have.

[38:59] And there will be people in your life that will see your posture towards God and they will insult you.

[39:08] They will. [39:10] It’s going to happen. [39:11] But here is the reality. [39:13] When you seek righteousness in a fallen world, you will incur insult for it because the world is fallen. [39:26] And the entire time, the reason you can forgive, the reason you can submit to God, [39:33] the reason that you can just want more of Jesus and less of their acclaim is because you know your reward is great in Heaven.

[39:45] Our faith in Jesus will not return void. [39:52] Faith dictates that I obey because I believe Jesus is going to give me great reward in the Kingdom. [40:05] And he will. [40:07] Trust him. [40:09] Follow him. [40:11] Live for him.

[40:14] And be found in him. [40:16] See, communion is this interesting thing when it comes to the Beatitudes [40:21] because I love the fact that Jesus gave us such an amazing picture of exactly what he’s talking about. [40:26] That’s why he did that. [40:28] The bread represents the broken body of Christ. [40:31] The cup represents his shed blood.

[40:33] And when we eat and we drink, do you know what we proclaim through that? [40:38] We need God to work in our lives. [40:41] We come to this table with nothing to offer. [40:45] We come with need. [40:47] And Jesus, through this picture, gives us food, he gives us sustenance, he gives us his life. [40:55] And when you eat and when you drink, it represents the life of Jesus going into yours.

[41:01] Now, if you’re a Christian, if you’re a follower of Jesus, if you’ve trusted him, [41:05] then this morning I’m going to invite you in just a moment to come to eat and drink. [41:10] But only if you are a Christian. [41:14] Because if you are not a Christian, then you don’t believe that you need this. [41:19] But the good news is, is that today could be the day of salvation for you. [41:24] Today could be the day where you realize you need only what Jesus has to offer.

[41:29] And you turn from your sin and you trust him. [41:33] And then this meal would have meaning for you. [41:37] When you’re ready, come.