An Invitation to Lasting Joy, Part 3
Turn with me today once again to a passage in Matthew’s Gospel that we call the Sermon on the Mount. We are discovering what Jesus says about following Him! How can we live in a way that pleases God and that enjoys His favor? It’s here in these verses.
My messages build one leading to the other. So, if you missed either of the first two, let me encourage you to order the CD’s (just $1), or to go online to the church’s website and download them.
In this passage, Jesus says, “Blessed are...” 9 times! What He says points us towards a life of true fulfillment, to a way to live that will give us contentment; a sense of meaning. And they are not what we would naturally expect Him to say!
A thousand things claim that they will bring us joy!
Our appetites are sharpened by advertisers who play up the potential of their products to bring us satisfaction, but often they don’t deliver anything near what they promise.
Carnival cruise lines try to convince us that we ought to put down a couple thousand to escape to the sun on board a ship in the Caribbean where the winter blahs will be whisked away.
Automobile manufacturers create little visual stories that compete to convince us that our desire for status and recognition will be satisfied when we are tooling down the road in a shining new automobile.
Geico works hard to convince us that we need not be a caveman!
We can save easy money if we just buy our insurance from them.
During this football season, a million beer commercials will try to convince us that if we drink
Coors, suddenly beautiful blond women will appear in our lives and we will be standing on snow-capped mountains like gods surveying all that we own.
Uh-Huh! Right! (With sarcasm.)
How then to be satisfied, full, approved by God; or in Jesus’ word... blessed?
The first week, we found that He connected ‘blessed’ to these words - spiritually poor, mourning, and meekness! Not exactly the stuff of a life that most of would call happy, is it? But Jesus explains how those things open our lives to receive what God has provided for us.
Last week, we took the 6th verse as our text-
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
At first thought, I don’t think that most of us would put righteousness anywhere near the top of our list ways to find joy. Why? Because for many righteousness equates religion.
We tend to confuse being righteous with being pious, which according to Webster’s dictionary means,
“to have an earnest regard for religious obligations.”
When I read about Jesus in the Gospels, I quickly realize that He wasn’t exactly a pious guy! He enjoyed a good party. He made wine for a wedding, when they ran out! Society’s outcasts sought to be in his company! From that I can conclude that he did not walk around with a halo, speaking softly, reading poetry, and avoiding manly stuff!
People who are trying to pious seem so stressed out to me. They strain at appearing holy and treat humor as though it were a sin. Sometimes I get the feeling that pious people are more interested in looking holy, than in really being holy.
Jesus didn’t care much for superficially pious people. He reserved scathing rebukes for the Pharisees who worked so diligently at looking holy and keeping themselves from being ‘contaminated’ by contact with ordinary people. He told them they were "like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean." Ouch!
Jesus commends our hunger for God, not a certain ‘look.’ The Bible teaches us that true righteousness is being in the right, being justified, being in approved standing with God. Righteousness is a gift that is accepted by faith in the Cross of Christ alone.
Do you and I have a responsibility for holiness? O yes! In Ephesians we are commanded to [4:1] "live a life worthy of the calling you have received." But what happens is an inside-out transformation. As God loves us, we become loving. As God becomes closer to us, we release our grasp on sin!
Now let’s look at our text for today.
TEXT - Matthew 5: 7-12 Pew Bible page 1501 READ
The next step towards lasting joy after we have accepted the gift of God’s righteousness is MERCY.
7 – Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
To illustrate this principle, Jesus told a story with exaggerated proportions. It is recorded in the 18th chapter of Matthew. Peter came to the Lord asking, “Lord, how many times should we forgive those who offend us?” In other words, “how long do we good guys have to put up with those who are evil?”
Jesus answered with a story.
[ re-tell the story of the 2 debtors, one forgiven by the King but unforgiving to his fellow-servant ]
The conclusion of the story is so stunning that I want to quote the exact words of Jesus from (Matthew 18:33-35)
Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." - Matt. 18:33-35
Are you embittered at others?
Do you harbor hatred towards that former spouse that treated you badly?
Are you refusing to be reconciled to your mother or father after all these years?
Is there someone in God’s church against whom you are nurturing a grudge?
Those attitudes are joy-killers!
God, whom you offended by your disobedience and disrespect has extended you forgiveness at His own expense. Are you justified in holding a lesser debt over the head of another? No way, friend. Forgiveness is a costly process but hatred is costlier still.
Fully satisfied, contented, and joyful are the merciful, because their humility allows God to pour on them the continuing mercy of His great love.
8 – Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
This directive grabs my attention! I live in a world of filth! Have you seen the promos for the new programs the networks are putting out this Fall? More violent, more greedy, more sensual ...
And yet Jesus calls us to be pure!
Purity is an absolute. Something is either pure or it is contaminated. I would not drink a glass of water that was 99% pure water only mixed with 1% dirty water. I would not knowingly take medicine that was produced in a lab that was germfree 99 days out of 100.
In this statement, Jesus calls us to pure hearts, that is, to pure inner persons.
What does He mean?
Is He demanding total sinlessness?
If that is a condition of lasting joy, we’re all destined to many days of sadness, for we are inescapably sinners!
The heart is a symbol in the Scriptures for the motives of a person. In another passage Jesus says, (Matthew 12:34-35) "....out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."
The call of this Scripture is to focus; to singlemindedness;
to a life well-ordered and devoted to one overwhelming love; the love of God.
This is, as I personally know, much easier to preach than it is to live.
Periodically, I ask myself, "What is your motive, Jerry?" The pure in heart work towards living for God in every moment. As we play, work, and worship- with a pure heart we aim our lives at pleasing Him.
Remember, too, it is not temptation that corrupts! It is action. Every Believer, regardless of maturity, experiences temptation to sin in various ways. We sin when we choose to follow the temptation.
9 – Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Have you ever brought people together, saw them come to an understanding of each other and find peace? I have. It is a tremendous way to find joy!
Left to our natural ways, we are not peaceable people. There is simply too much selfishness in us apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
∙ Marriages break down as spouses work at making each other submit to a selfish agenda.
∙ Churches split when factions insist that their point of view is exclusively right.
∙ Wars break out when one nation or ruling group attempts to control another for religious, political, or economic reasons.
God’s people are to be active seekers of peace.
What is peace?
Is it simply the absence of conflict? NO!
Is it a truce? NO!
Peace is reconciliation, understanding, seeking the best for each other.
When we have understood our own spiritual bankruptcy, humbly extended mercy to others even as we asked God for His mercy, made our motive the will of God above all things; we are then ready to become peacemakers. John says it simply - “We love because God loved us first!” When in Christ we have dealt with our own fears and when our ego issues are settled, we can risk taking the hands of declared enemies as mediators. There in the middle there is great danger and great potential for good.
We are to be bringers of peace in both the horizontal relationships: person to person.
There is another very real way that we are to act as peace-makers. We actively seek to reconcile men and women to the Lord. Few things in this world make me more sad than Christians who see their mission as building walls instead of bridges!
"So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:20-21, NLT)
Jesus said that when we become peacemakers we show that we are God’s children. His Father love is evident in our peace-making.
Finally, Jesus closes this part of His sermon with an amazing declaration
10-11 – Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
People who live in the ways that we have discussed would seem to be among the most loved people in the world. But often they are not. Why?
Because humanity, as a rule, hates difference.
ill.- Watch ordinary school kids on the playground. They can be extremely cruel to the kid who is ‘different.’ Teen suicide is a real problem among kids who are labeled as ‘different,’ or as ‘outsiders.’
God makes you and me different! Weird is not what I’m talking about. I’ve met some Believers who work hard at being weird, for weirdness sake
We are to be a unique and different kind of person because of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, changing what we love, giving a completely different set of goals and values. Christians who are radically committed to the lifestyle taught by our Lord will certainly be different. They will march to a different cadence as they hear the call of the Spirit’s voice in their inner man. And, Jesus says, they will be hated.
I need to make the point strongly here! Listen! The Bible does not say simply, "Blessed are you if you are persecuted." All of us know that there are religious fools who bring wrath on themselves by their own stupidity. You know the type.
They are offensive, pushy, and bad-mannered.
They embarrass people, show no respect for others, and lack any semblance of sensitivity.
They often carry the biggest Bible in town and are proud of their ability to quote a verse for every occasion, ready to bash the ‘sinner,’ at any moment!
They are always right, never show a moment of self-doubt, and are quick to point out your flaws and sins.
These foolish religionists think that they are being persecuted for Christ and consequently glory in their pain. In reality, they are hated because they are self-righteous and pompous.
Let any persecution that comes our way be because of Jesus Christ, not because of bad manners!
∙ If your boss calls you on carpet and complains about your work habits, don’t automatically assume he’s against you because you are a Christian. Take an honest look at the kind of employee you are.
∙ If your neighbor avoids you, don’t automatically assume it is because of Christ. Check to see if your dog is doing his morning thing on their lawn. Think that it might your choice to put that giant inflatable Santa Claus right in the way of their view.
Make sure that you are a good neighbor, a conscientious worker, a loving husband or wife for the glory of God.
And what if are doing these things and someone still turns on us and hates us because we are different?
Jesus says, "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Let me put His words into today’s language. "Look up. God knows your heart and remember you’re in good company!"
Close:
Do you want lasting joy?
Do you want a life that is filled with contentment and approved by God?
Let me read those verses to you from The Message...
“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds.
And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble." (Matthew 5:6-12, The Message)
Jerry D. Scott, copyright 2007
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