"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Most of us have heard these words from the Declaration of Independence since we were in elementary school. In a sense, they represent what it means to be an American. But unfortunately, at the same time, they can be dangerous stumbling blocks for a Christ follower who truly desires to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Our culture has manipulated the idea of the right to pursue happiness into an unhealthy and unbiblical quest for those things that will make us feel good and be happy without regard for any kind of moral underpinnings that provide the proper foundation for that pursuit.
This morning we’re going to begin an examination of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. With those well known words, Jesus is going to describe a whole new way of life in which real blessing, joy and contentment come not from pursuing the things of the world or by trying to change our circumstances, but rather by entering into an intimate relationship with the One who created us. He is going to describe a new kind of kingdom in which things are turned upside down, where previous assumptions about the nature of that kingdom are going to be challenged and refuted. And in the process, He is going to teach us how we are to live in the midst of that kingdom.
Before we begin, let’s put this in context. After His baptism and His temptation in the wilderness, Jesus begins His public ministry. Matthew records for us the main message of that ministry:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 4:17 (ESV)
This must have been exciting news for the Jews who had been waiting for the Messiah to appear and usher in His kingdom. The expectation was that the Messiah was going to overthrow the tyrannical Roman government which persecuted the Jews and initiate a new governmental system here on earth.
But early in His ministry Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom of heaven that is at hand is something quite different than what they are expecting. So let’s turn to Matthew 5 and read Matthew’s introduction to this amazing sermon:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Matthew 5:1, 2 (ESV)
At the end of chapter 4, we learn that Jesus had become quite popular due to both the miraculous healings he performed and his authoritative teaching. As a result, large crowds began to gather around Him. On one of those occasions, He went up on a mountain and sat down to teach. Jesus is following the Jewish custom here where the teacher would sit down and his audience would stand as he taught. Seems we have things backward here, doesn’t it?
As Jesus sat to teach, those who were His disciples gathered around Him, indicating that the teaching that He was about to give was meant primarily for them. But we know that Jesus desired that the crowds would also hear His words. And we know that did in fact occur when we read what happens at the end of the sermon:
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Matthew 7:28, 29 (ESV)
So there are two audiences here. The primary audience consists of Jesus’ disciples. But the crowds also get to hear Jesus’ words. And, as we’ll see this morning, Jesus’ words serve different purposes for the different audiences.
This morning, we’ll look at the opening words of Jesus’ sermon. With these introductory words, Jesus provides the theme for the rest of the message. Everything else we’ll look at in the coming weeks is merely a further commentary on the principles that Jesus lays out here. So with that background let’s continue reading in verse 3:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:3-12 (ESV)
Most of us recognize this section as what we often call “The Beatitudes” – a word that is derived from the Latin word meaning “happy”, “fortunate”, or blissful”. This, in turn comes from the first word in the nine statements that begin with “blessed are…” Before we go any further, we must pause and make sure we understand the meaning of the word “blessed.”
A number of modern translations render that word as “happy”, so you will read “happy are…” But, as we’ve discussed before, the word “happy” comes from the root word “hap” which refers to chance and therefore happiness is something that depends on our circumstances. Being blessed, on the other hand, is not dependent on our circumstances, but rather upon the God of the universe and the operation of His grace in our lives.
I really like how Bob Deffinbaugh describes this idea of being blessed:
The inner joy, serenity, and composure which comes from knowing that we are right with God, that our contentment and well being are not the product of chance but of infinite grace.
There is certainly some debate about the meaning and application of these beatitudes, but if we keep these statements in their proper context, we see that they actually have two purposes – one for each of the two audiences:
The Purpose of the Beatitudes:
• For the Christ follower – words of celebration
For His disciples, these were words of celebration. Because of their decision to follow Jesus and submit their lives to Him, they were indeed blessed already. And there were even greater blessings yet to come. We’ll see this more clearly in a moment.
• For the unbeliever – words of invitation
For the crowds who were eavesdropping as Jesus taught His disciples, these words served as words of invitation. This was Jesus’ invitation to them to become the kind of people whose lives are characterized by those blessings.
Nearly 2,000 years later, those words still serve the same purpose this morning. For those of us who have already committed our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior, these words should cause us to celebrate. In fact as He closes this section, Jesus exhorts His followers to rejoice and be glad. But if you haven’t already made that commitment in your life and you’re here this morning eavesdropping on these words of Jesus, then they are an invitation to you to follow Him so that you, too, can receive these blessings.
Obviously, this section could easily be broken into a number of sermons that would focus on each individual saying. But here’s why I’m not going to do that. Just as we saw with the fruit of the Spirit, it is really easy to make this into a list of unrelated tasks to add to my to-do list in order to become more like Jesus. And one of the dangers of that is that we then tend to pick and choose those individual elements that we want to focus on and largely ignore the others. But I can prove to you this morning that such an approach is definitely not what Jesus had in mind. But in order to do that we’ll have to approach the passage with a much broader lens than just focusing on the individual elements.
So let’s see what we can learn from a broader look at the overall structure of this passage.
The structure of this passage reveals that:
As we examine this passage, it is really important to look at the tense of the verbs and the subject and object of the actions that are described here. When we do that we learn first of all that…
• The Beatitudes consist of future promises “bookended” by present reality
Verses 3 and 11 serve as “bookends” for this passage. Both of them end with the phrase “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Notice the present tense verb there – “theirs is”. In those two verses Jesus is describing something that is a present reality in the life of His disciples. They possess the kingdom of heaven right then and there.
The same is true for Jesus’ followers today. There is a present aspect of His kingdom that we possess right now. When Jesus came to earth the first time and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, He made it possible for us to experience the blessings of being part of His kingdom right here and now.
But in between those two “bookend” verses we find that the other blessings are all in the future tense – “they shall”. There are aspects of the kingdom of heaven that will not be experienced in full until after the return of Jesus in the future.
I think that much of the confusion about this passage stems from the failure to recognize the contrast between the present and future aspects of the kingdom. So people commit their lives to Jesus and then they become disillusioned when they don’t immediately experience things like comfort and mercy and satisfaction and the ability to see God clearly. Certainly Jesus does provide those things in some measure in the present, but none of us will experience them to the full extent God has in store for us until some future time.
There is a second important conclusion that we can draw from the structure of these verses:
• The Beatitudes are both universal and personal
In verses 3 through 10, Jesus speaks in the 3rd person – theirs is the kingdom, they shall be comforted, they shall receive… But there is a noticeable change in verse 11 as Jesus shift to the 2nd person – blessed are you…your reward…
Jesus begins by describing the general, universal principles that apply to His kingdom as a whole. He makes it clear that these blessings are available to anyone who is willing to humble themselves before God and commit their life to Him. But then He turns to His disciples to drive home the point that this is about them personally.
He wants to make sure they understand that they are individually and corporately responsible for implementing these principles in their lives.
As we journey through the Sermon on the Mount over the next few months, this is something that we need to keep foremost in our minds. It is far too easy to look at these instructions from Jesus and think about how good it is for everyone else to live by those principles. But Jesus is saying to each of us, blessed are you if you apply these principles in your life.
Given what we’ve learned so far, the key to experiencing all these blessings is found in verse 3. So let’s focus for a few minutes on…
What does it mean to be “poor in sprit”?
We actually talked about this a bit last week when we looked at Jesus’ mission statement. You’ll remember that when we examined Jesus’ claim that He had come to preach good news to the poor that we even referred to verse 3 to help explain Jesus’ mission. But this is such a crucial concept that it certainly won’t hurt to review it again.
As we discovered last week, the idea of being poor in spirit means that…
• I recognize my true condition before God
Remember that the word translated poor here is the word that indicates someone is completely destitute – they have nothing. So someone who is spiritually poor recognizes that they are spiritually bankrupt in the eyes of God. And it is only when we come to the point in our lives where we recognize that we have absolutely nothing to offer to God that it is possible to enter into His kingdom. Here are a couple of modern translations and paraphrases that do a pretty good job of capturing the idea of what it means to be poor in spirit.
Blessed are those who recognize they are spiritually helpless. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
Matthew 5:3 (God’s Word)
You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
Matthew 5:3 (Message)
A little later in His ministry, Jesus told a parable that illustrates perfectly for us what it means to be poor in spirit:
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9-14 (ESV)
The self-righteous Pharisee was far from poor in spirit. And because he did not recognize his spiritual poverty, he was quite far from being able to enter the kingdom of heaven. The tax collector, on the other, hand, had an accurate view of what his life looked like when compared to the absolute holiness of God. And because he recognized his true condition before God, he was ready to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
In a culture that values “self-made” men and those who can “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps”, this isn’t a real popular message today. We’re taught from a very young age not to be weak and if there are areas of weakness in our lives, we’re encouraged to hide those from others. That’s why without a doubt for most people the hardest question in a job interview is “What is your greatest weakness?” As we think about that question perhaps we would do well to consider the words of Vice President Joe Biden:
“If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30% chance we’re going to get it wrong.”
It is not easy to become or to remain “poor in spirit”, especially in our culture. So if we really desire to do that, then we need to be aware of potential barriers in our lives that might prevent us from receiving the blessings that come from being able to enter the kingdom of heaven by being poor in spirit.
Barriers to being “poor in spirit”
1. Being self-sufficient
In Luke 6, we find that Jesus preached a similar message at another time. We can’t be sure, but from what we see in the gospel accounts, it appears that Jesus preached essentially the same message throughout His ministry, obviously tailoring the message to the specific audience. But in the Luke account, right after Jesus describes the blessings of the kingdom, He gives these words of warning:
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Luke 6:24-26 (ESV)
Jesus is speaking here to those who have been attempting to obtain the riches of the kingdom through their own efforts. But for those who are pursuing riches, satisfaction, comfort and prestige here in this life, Jesus makes it clear that they might find some temporary happiness, but they will forfeit the long-term blessings that come from being poor in spirit.
That’s why the beatitudes are not merely some guide to achieving a better life. They are not, as I’ve seen them labeled, “eight steps to happiness.” This is not some kind of life that we can achieve on our own by just trying a little harder. It is a life that can only be found in Jesus as we receive Him into our lives and allow Him to transform us day-by-day into His image. It is a life that must drive us to our knees where we lay our lives before Him so that He might cast His grace upon us.
2. Our desire for comfort
Most of us really like comfort and we tend to do all that we can to preserve it in our lives. And that desire for comfort has a tendency to influence every decision that we make in our lives. But often in our desire to maintain the status quo, we have to sacrifice the righteousness that characterizes the kingdom of heaven.
Most of us really love these beatitudes until we get to the last one. We want to be comforted and satisfied, we want to inherit the earth, we want to receive mercy, we want to see God and be called the sons of God. But then we come to verse 10:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And here’s where our desire for comfort kicks in. I don’t know too many people who want to suffer persecution because they choose to pursue righteousness. But Jesus warned His followers that is exactly what they should expect.
I know that I don’t want to develop my theology based on the words of a motivational speaker who wrote a book called Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. But T. Harv Eker wrote some interesting words that can be applied to our life in the kingdom of heaven:
Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills!
That is certainly true spiritually – comfort does kill. When our desire for comfort gets in the way of our desire for Jesus, then we are no longer able to enter into the kingdom of heaven and receive all the blessings that Jesus has waiting for us. And ultimately that leads not just to physical death, but to spiritual death as well.
But for those who are willing to endure persecution for the sake of their relationship with Jesus, He ends this section with a wonderful promise:
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…
In other words, if we’re willing to sacrifice some temporary comfort right now, Jesus has some permanent rewards that await us in the future.
We began this morning with these words from the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
I am certainly grateful to live in a country where I have those rights. But let me ask you a question this morning: If your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were to be taken away, is Jesus enough?
Is it enough to humble yourself before Jesus and admit that you are spiritually bankrupt so that you can enter into His kingdom? Or are you still clinging to the desire to be self sufficient and settling for temporary happiness that will fade away as soon as your circumstances change?
Is it enough to sacrifice comfort in order to pursue righteousness, knowing that the final and complete fulfillment of Jesus’ promised blessings await His return to this earth at a time that none of us know? Or are you still caught up in pursuing the American dream that falsely promises comfort and happiness right now?
Is Jesus enough?
