How To Be Like Jesus

How to be like Jesus

This simple sermon title involves a lot of profound teaching from Jesus. A lot of people today and in Jesus time too were looking for the fast solutions to the problems of life. Life was no less complicated for the people of Jesus time than it is for us today. We all want answers to lifes big questions. This search for answers begins when we are young.

A man was taking his daughter to middle school and he thought he should start talking to her about some serious stuff, such as the meaning of life.

He asked his daughter, what she thought was the meaning of life.

Her response: My meaning of life is to please Mommy.

So then he asked: "What about Daddy?

She said: Your meaning of life is to please mommy, too.

What does life mean? What should I do with my life? What is truly important in life? How do I please God? What must I do to get to heaven? How can I live at peace with God? How can I live at peace with my fellow man? How can I make a difference in the lives of others?

These very personal and spiritual kinds of questions can be answered here in the famous passage of scripture we call The Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew Chapter 5 we have the answers of life provided for us by Jesus. Jesus starts by giving us answers and not questions.

Moses gave the Hebrews the Ten Commandments and Jesus gave the Jews the Ten Beatitudes. Both were delivered from a mountain top by Gods law giver. Moses list outlined the consequence for disobeying Gods law and Jesus list outlined the benefits of fulfilling them.

3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The word for blessed in the Greek is makarioi which means to be characterized by the quality of God, blessedness, makariotes is when one is indwelt by God, and Gods nature is in him/her, you have the kingdom of God in you.

To put it another way it is like saying, To be truly satisfied in this empty life one has to desire the indwelling of God in their spirit, then they will be filled and possess the kingdom of God. Fullness of spirit is to have God fully living in you. You must have a desire to empty yourself of sin and repent of sin then a new attitude to be filled with Gods righteousness will be realized.

4. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

The Greek word for mourn here is pentheo which means to wail. It is also part of the root word that makes of the Greek equivalent of Mother in law penthera. I did not intend for this to be a crack about mother in laws it just happens to be part of the root word. I am sure that Mothers in law can sometimes make you wail but that is not the meaning here.

Once again the first word is Blessed. We now know that word means to be characterized by Gods quality. So people who mourn or grieve and wail can know the quality of Gods blessing by the kind of comfort that only God provides.

What is it that causes you to mourn with a deep grief? Is it the loss of personal relationships? Is it the condition of your sinful life? Is it the condition of this sinful world? Is it your separation from God?

It is that kind of deep grief that only God can comfort? For only He can touch you deeply enough to heal your broken heart. God hears the wail of grief from deep within you. He answers that grief by being the God of all comfort.

5. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Again the first word means to be characterized by Gods quality. Meekness in the Greek means Prautes to be angry at sin. It is the action of a Christian who chooses to fight sin rather than yield to it. Those who truly desire to fight the sin in their lives will inherit the earth. In the original Garden of Eden there was no sin and the world was for a brief time perfect. Those who fight against sin in their lives will inherit a perfect earth.

6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

The quality of Gods character in our lives by being the Hungering ones Peinontes

To be famished, to crave to be absolutely hungry. The righteousness here is not our own but Gods Holy Righteousness Dikaios innocent, holy, just, right.

Gods righteousness is pure, it has a holy purpose a right purpose that accomplishes Gods will. Do we constantly find ourselves hungry for what we know God says is right? Some of us have lost that kind of appetite. Only by wanting that which God wants can we be filled.