Title: The Beatitudes Part II Script: Mt. 5:6-8.
Type: Series Where: GNBC 1-21-18
Intro: In 1965, The Rolling Stones went from being just another band to one of the most popular bands of all times with the release of the song“ I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”- I try and I try and I try and I try, but I can’t get no satisfaction. It was about trying to find happiness thru money, power, possessions, relationships, etc. The song expressed what most people feel- “no matter how much of any of these things you have/experience it is never enough-you always yearn for more.” ** The song echoes the life experience of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. He talked about all of the possessions and experiences life has to offer and he came to the conclusion that “Everything is vain” pointless/empty. Here, though, in the Sermon on the Mount and particularly in the Beatitudes, Jesus gives us a recipe for finding joy and happiness in life. He gives us the ways to be “blessed”- deliriously happy.
Prop: Let’s examine 3 more of Xst’s Beatitudes so as to see the ultimate source of happiness.
BG: 1. Again, not for special class of Christians, but all Christians at all times.
2.”Beatitude” – blessings/how blessed
3. Annually, this is one of the most loved passages read and preached on by Christians.
Prop: Let’s examine together the next three of Christ’s Beatitudes.
I. The Blessing of Pursuing Righteousness. V. 6
A. Christ Calls us to Pursue Righteousness
1. Christ clearly gives us direction as to what we should pursue with our lives.
a. What are you pursuing in your life this morning? Most people attempt to live according to the US Declaration of Ind. “"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" The phrase gives three examples of the "inalienable rights" which the Declaration says has been given to all human beings by their Creator, and for which governments are created to protect. Many people spend their entire lives in an endless pursuit of happiness/pleasure. Some people seeking justice for others or selves. Some Christians go from one experience to another. Seking higher spiritual high. However, the WOG says here, that we are to pursue “Righteousness”
b. “righteousness” – Has to do with the claims of a higher authority. If Christian, this Higher Authority is God and His Word. If secular, it is the Law of the State. Who or what is your standard? This question allows us to see if we are “righteous” or not. Many today reject the notion of God and that He has a standard. Many of these individuals live upright and law abiding lives. Are they righteous? Maybe according to the laws of society, but not according to the Laws of a Higher Authority, the Law of God. Jesus is saying to us to pursue God with single minded ambition.
2. What motivates you and me as disciples of Jesus?
a. Are you a Christian? Are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness? We have already seen our need to be poor in spirit, need to mourn our lost and sinful condition, need to be humble. When we seek after righteousness, we automatically do that. We have a more positive and grateful outlook, we mourn over our sin and the sin of our society, we deal more gently with other and our lives demonstrate humility instead of arrogance. Once we are convicted of our sin we begin to seek the solution: hungering and thirsting after His righteousness. Here is the secret to life: Those who seek after God are satisfied, those who don’t, aren’t. Illust: What do people seekin hopes of satisfying? Two weeks ago, CR Gaz ran an excellent article written by and about Hannah Frazee, who was a standout runner at CR Prairie and competitor against Mary in HS. Frazee open and honest about trap pursuit of athletic success became in her life. Success led to a desire for greater success. Focus fell onto food and resulted in eating disorders that initially gave her short term success, but also nearly killed her. Thank God she has gotten help and is doing better. However, important principle to learn: Whatever we hunger and thirst after in a disproportionate place before God will ultimately be our own undoing. Why? Put it in the place of God and becomes an idol. “Seek ye 1st His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”
b. The great motive of the world is “happiness” or blessedness. Yet, according to Jesus we are not to hunger and thirst after happiness or blessedness. However, this is the one main focus most people have in life and the end result is that by pursuing it, we always miss it. Always eludes us. Illust: Past week I realized my prayers for my children have been wrong. Instead of asking God to bless my children, I should ask God to give them a hunger and a thirst for righteousness sake.
B. What does Jesus say is the outcome of the life Pursuing Righteousness?
1. Individually, our outcome is:
a. “Satisfied”- Again, a fullness, a filling. Stuffed. Illust: Hymn: “ Satisfied” – 1st stanza: “All my life long I had panted, For a drink from some cool spring, That I hoped would quench the burning, Of the thirst I felt within….” Maybe you are here today and know that something is missing in your life. Tried one thing after another to fill void. Never satisfies. Need Christ!
b. Illust: I read this past week that the Management Group stated actor Johnny Depp lives off of loans and spends on the avg. about $2 million every month. Obviously lavish lifestyle in an attempt to find satisfaction. Missing it. Should read Ps. 42:1 “As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longs after you.”
2. There is a blessing of pursuing righteousness as a people as well as as an individual.
a. Our nation thinks it will be exalted through its financial or military might. No! Will not be exalted through our lofty educational goals. Rather, the Bible tells us: “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace to a people.” (Prov. 14:34)
b. Illust: do you know that after the welsh revival of 1904-1905, the mules/donkeys could no longer work in the mines? Why do you say? Because so many of the miners had gotten saved and no longer swore, the poor animals no longer knew the commands to respond to!
C. Applic: JN Darby once said: “When the prodigal son was hungry he fed on corn husks. When he was starving, he turned to his father to be fed.” How about you and me? Are you content sampling from the pig sty of life or do you want a table at the banqueting table of our Lord?!
II. The Blessing of Pursuing Mercy. V.7
A. Jesus told us that there is a blessing in pursuing mercy.
1. Christians are to be a merciful people.
a. What is “mercy”? – Mercy is a sense o pity that seeks to relieve suffering. It is pity +action. We have all seen ad campaigns for orphans or flood victims or even animals. There are always pictures or videos of the suffering of the affected individual(s). Why? Pictures well up emotions in our hearts. Cannot ignore. Pity motivates us to give or volunteer.
b. Illust: The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the great examples of mercy in the Bible. Luke 10:25ff. We see the story of a man who falls into the merciless hands of bandits. He is robbed and beaten. Both a priest and then later a Levite pass this man by. However, a Samaritan, as seen by the Jews of Christ’s time, a contemptuous, unclean, religious and ethnic half breed, is moved by pity and cares for the man. Jesus’ question of application at the end of the parable: “Who is this man’s neighbor?” “The one who had mercy upon him.”
2. We are to pursue mercy because God has had compassion on us.
a. Our Christian faith must control us, not us controlling our Christianity. Reading the Beatitudes, we realize our faith goes to the heart of the matter. Goes deep inside us. The Christian’s faith is more than a cheap veneer that simply covers the surface of our lives. Rather, our faith is to be at the very center of our lives.
b. In the NT, mercy is God’s compassion, eleos, it is His relief from distress, the outward manifestation of pity. Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit…”
B. What is the outcome of a Life that Seeks to Pursue and Extend Mercy?
1. Christ tells us what the outcome of this choice in life will be.
a. “You will receive mercy.” Heaven! Forgiveness! Refuse to forgive others? Illust: Mt. 18 Jesus tells an alarming parable to answer Peter’s question about forgiveness. Peter gave the most religious answer of the time: “7xs”, right Lord?” No, 7x70! Then tells parable of a King’s slave who owed by today’s sum, $millions (10k talents – some question, at least $ millions and possibly $10s of millions). Did not have the means to repay so, about to sell he and wife and children. V.26 begged for mercy. The king felt mercy/compassion and released and forgave his debt. However, that slave went out and found a man who owed him 100 denari ($7-8k), choked and beat him demanding his payment. He in turn begged for mercy. However, the man had him thrown in prison until all had was paid. Wait, you have just been forgiven possibly $20 million an yet you cannot forgive another $7-8k? You are sick! Guess what? Others were watching! Went and reported it to their king. King had 1st slave arrested and tortured until paid of the debt…never. What was Christ saying? Tells us in v. 35 “And so shall my Heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from the heart.”
b. Illust: Think of God’s offer of mercy as a banquet to which you are invited. The table is filled with the most luscious foods: spicy appetizers, gourmet entrées steaming on heated plates, a vast array of juicy fruits, iced deserts, and cool, sweet drinks. The table is so large that it has enough room for more than the few who have come. But strangely enough, outside the door to the banquet hall stands a crowd who will not enter. They cry out, “I’m so hungry, so hungry!” You can almost hear their starved stomachs rumbling from lack of food. Yet for some reason, they will not step through the door and help themselves to the free banquet provided for them. A. W. Tozer gives this analogy when he writes: We may plead for mercy for a lifetime in unbelief, and at the end of our days be still no more than sadly hopeful that we shall somewhere, sometime, receive it. This is to starve to death just outside the banquet hall in which we have been warmly invited. Or we may, if we will, lay hold on the mercy of God by faith, not allow skepticism and unbelief to keep us from the feast of delicious foods prepared for us.
2. What is the outcome of a life that pursues mercy?
a. Bottom line- you will receive mercy. Illust: Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets. Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep. Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus. Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet-which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to pay it back, declaring it to be a loan, and advised the young man to leave the way he had come so as to avoid the Secret Service! (Yes, the loan was paid back.) (Today in the Word, October 8, 1992)
b. We need to realize that this is not simply a function of some people’s personalities. Some people are more easy going than others. Some get along better. Some aren’t so strict. Don’t think this is how this works. The Gospel is for all people, not certain temperaments. Pursue mercy and you will be blessed by God’s mercy.
C. Applic: you and I have absolutely no claim on God. He doesn’t owe us a thing. It is only by His grace and mercy that we can know forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
III. The Blessing of Purity v. 8
A. Jesus says that there is a blessing in being pure in heart.
1. The Words of Christ ring loudly in a culture that has devalued the importance of purity.
a. “pure in heart” - Is. 33:15-16 – “He that lives righteously …shall dwell on high…” Being pure in conduct also includes honesty and integrity in dealing with our fellowmen. A Christian should be known in his neighborhood or place of business as an honest person, a person who can be trusted. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Do you want to be happy? All right, apply this Beatitude to your heart. Take it to yourself. The pure in heart are the only ones who can know what it means to be supremely happy. Their hearts are pure toward God and, as a result are pure toward their fellowmen. They are happy because, in possessing Him who is All and in All, they envy no man’s worldly goods. They are happy because they envy not another man’s praise. Because they are the enemy of no man, they regard no man as their enemy. The result is peace with God and the world.
b. Does this passage strike you with your own sense of complete inadequacy? Never lose site of the fact that the Gospel gets to the heart of the matter. The Gospel is concerned about our hearts. The first thing we learn from this beatitude is that Jesus is concerned with our heart. It is not enough to clean up our act on the outside. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of robbery and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matthew 23:25–26)
The aim of Jesus Christ is not to reform the manners of society, but to change the hearts of sinners like you and me.
2. What is this purity of heart?
a. Who exactly then are the pure in heart? Well, it seems according to Jesus, the pure of heart are those who mourn the impurity of their hearts! Illust – Grace Anderson 1984. Farm south of Marion, IN. Took us to pray with her. Remember her confessing sins. I thought she wasn’t too bad.
b. You see, the “heart” doesn’t mean the organ inside our chest cavity, rather it is the center of our personality. Who or what is at the center of your being? Who are you? Really? All of the time? Who is there? Who takes up residence?
B. What is the Reward of the Pure in Heart?
1. v.8 – “They shall see God.” What does it mean to see God? Well, it means at least three things: 1. To be let into the presence of God. 2. To be awestruck by His glory. - After God confronted Job in the whirlwind, Job said, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Virtually all of our spiritual sight in this life is mediated to us through the Word of God or the work of God in providence. We "see" images and reflections of his glory. We hear echoes and reverberations of his voice. But there will come a day when God himself will dwell among us. His glory will no longer be inferred from lightning and mountains and roaring seas and constellations of stars. Instead our experience of him will be direct. 3. Being comforted by His Grace - Again and again the psalmists cry out to God that he not hide his face from them. For example in Psalm 27 (verses 7–9) David says, Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
. . . Hide not thy face from me."Hide not thy face from me," is the same as saying, "Be gracious to me!" This means that seeing the face of God is considered to be a sweet and comforting experience. If God shows his face, we are helped.
2. How do I define this purity and what about my conscience?
a. The Greek word for “pure” is katharos (used 27 times in the New Testament). Fundamentally, it signifies that which is clean, or free from contaminating substance (cf. Danker et al., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 489). The term is used literally, for instance, of the “clean” cloth in which Jesus’ body was wrapped after his death (Mt. 27:59). In the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the word is employed in a ceremonial sense of the purification from leprosy. It also can apply to the release of certain unfortunate individuals from “unclean spirits,” i.e., demons, the persons then, by implication, become “clean.” On the other hand, the katharos may be engaged in a higher sense. William Barclay contended that with a spiritual import, “pure” may describe the heart that is free of unadulterated “motives” (Commentary on Matthew, I.101).
b. Illust: Xaviera Hollander wrote a book with a title: The Happy Hooker. Hollander, a prostitute, sought to silence the people who believe that no prostitute could find joy in what she was doing. In her book, Hollander celebrates the joy that she experienced in her profession, saying that she never felt guilty about what she was doing. To be sure, Hollander said, the first time she involved herself in prostitution, she felt pangs of guilt. But over time, she got to the point where her feelings of guilt dissipated. However, there was one important exception to this. When Hollander heard the ringing of church bells, her seared and dulled conscience would flare up. She was reminded that what she was doing was under the condemnation of Almighty God. Even this hardened professional prostitute could not totally destroy the conscience that God had placed within her.
C. Applic: So the heart is utterly crucial to Jesus. What we are in the deep, private recesses of our lives is what He cares about most. Jesus did not come into the world simply because we have some bad habits that need to be broken. He came into the world because we have such dirty hearts that need to be purified only when we abandon ourselves and come to Christ can we be declared “pure”.
