INTRODUCTION
Last week we finished our series of six talks on the theme ‘Great Messages of Encouragement’. We’re now starting a new series of talks on the Sermon on the Mount. I don’t know how many talks we’ll have on it, but it will be more than six!
What is ‘the Sermon on the Mount’? Well, it’s a sermon Jesus taught from a mountainside! It’s also Jesus’ longest sermon that is recorded in the New Testament.
Given that it’s Jesus’ longest sermon it’s a fair assumption that it’s important. And Jesus made it clear that it IS important. At the end of his sermon he told the story of a wise man who built his house on a rock. The wise man is the man who pays attention to what Jesus is teaching and puts it into practice. The foolish man, in contrast, doesn’t do that. His house collapses.
What Jesus said applies to ALL of his teaching. We need to listen to ALL of it and put ALL of it into practice. But the fact is that Jesus gave this scary warning at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. It strongly suggests that THIS teaching is vitally important. Fail to listen and put this into practice and what happens? Our house collapses.
THE SETTING
In our Bibles, the Sermon on the Mount starts at Matthew 5 verse 3. But we can’t skip verses 1 and 2!
In verse 1 Matthew tells us, ‘Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain.’ That’s a significant detail. Many commentators point out that God gave Moses the law – the Ten Commandments – on a mountain, Mount Horeb. So, Jesus is following that pattern. But what role is Jesus in? Is he taking the role of God, GIVING the law, or of Moses, RECEIVING the law to pass on to the people? Clearly, Jesus isn’t in the role of listener; he’s in the role of speaker. He is in the role of God!
HOW MANY BEATITUDES?
In many Bibles the section that follows has the heading ‘the Beatitudes.’ Jesus says, ‘Blessed are’ nine times. So it looks like there are nine beatitudes. Many commentators think the eighth and ninth beatitudes are about the same thing and join them together, so they count eight beatitudes. But either way, there aren’t ten. If there were ten beatitudes, we might think that Jesus was replacing the Ten Commandments. He isn’t doing that.
Jesus is going to tell us nine – or perhaps eight – things which will lead to us being ‘happy’, ‘rich’ and ‘blessed’. As we will see, Jesus’ list is completely different to what most people would think will make them happy! Today I aim to cover the first three Beatitudes.
So, let’s get started! In each case I’ll try to unpack what I believe the Beatitude means. I’m going to link the Beatitude to the Old Testament. Then I’ll briefly suggest a possible application.
BEATITUDE NUMBER ONE
Beatitude Number One is ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’
Poor means different things in different contexts. It might mean that we don’t have much money. Or we might say that a fisherman has a poor catch or someone has poor health. But what does Jesus mean by ‘poor in spirit’?
Let’s have an Old Testament reference. David, in the psalms, writes:
‘The Lord is near to the BROKEN-HEARTED
and SAVES the CRUSHED IN SPIRIT’ [Psalm 34:18]
There are a number of similar verses in the Old Testament. [For example, Psalm 51:17, Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 66:2.] These verses tell us that God does various things for the broken-hearted, crushed in spirit, humble, contrite. These words all express the idea of being poor in spirit.
People who approach God broken-hearted, crushed in spirit, humble, contrite – in short, ‘poor in spirit’ – end up blessed! Why? Because – these verses tell us – God draws near to them, saves them, doesn’t despise them, dwells with them, looks to them. It sounds good, doesn’t it?
That’s the picture these verses in the Old Testament give us and that is what I believe Jesus is describing. God calls us to approach him with an attitude of being poor in spirit.
Jesus told a story which I think illustrates what he meant. It was about a tax collector and a Pharisee. The Pharisee was very self-righteous. But the tax collector beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ [Luke 18:9-14]. He shows us what being poor in spirit looks like. The tax collector hadn’t got anything to offer God and he knew it. The only thing he could ask for was God’s mercy. Jesus said that he – not the Pharisee – went home justified.
This is where the Christian life starts. The starting point in our relationship with God is when we come to God and say to him: ‘I’m poor. I’m bankrupt, in fact. I’m done for. God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ That’s the first step on the way to being blessed, happy, fortunate. It probably isn’t what we’d expect!
The first Beatitude shows how we enter the kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom. But we don’t stop there!
BEATITUDE NUMBER TWO
Beatitude Number Two is ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’
We mourn when a close relative or friend dies. But we also mourn other things. Today, we’re mourning deeply for Ukraine. Russia’s invasion was entirely unprovoked and is causing so much completely unnecessary suffering. People in some countries might mourn loss of freedoms they used to enjoy. In the UK we might mourn changes to our countryside or declines in bird populations. But what does Jesus mean when he says ‘Blessed are those who mourn’?
As before, I’m going to go to the Old Testament. It’s a slightly longer passage this time. It’s Isaiah 61:1-4.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord anointed me
To bring good news to the humble;
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
To proclaim release to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
2 To proclaim the favourable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God;
TO COMFORT ALL WHO MOURN,
3 To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
Look at verse 1. Does it seem familiar? Jesus was once invited to preach in a synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. He found this passage, read it and said, in effect, ‘This is about me.’
Isaiah prophesies what the Messiah would do. He will bring good news to the humble, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim release to captives. And then, at the end of verse 2, Isaiah adds one more thing: ‘comfort all who mourn’.
Isaiah almost certainly has mourning over sin in mind. Jesus has the same thing in mind too. He’s continuing his thought from the first Beatitude. The first Beatitude was ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit.’ We’re poor in spirit because we’re sinners. We have no right to come before God. We’re spiritually bankrupt. We need to recognize that. But we also respond to it. We aren’t happy about it! On the contrary, we mourn the fact that there’s sin in our lives. Do people do that? In Jesus’ day, a woman came and washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. She was mourning, grieving over her sin. We’ve just recalled a story Jesus told about a tax collector. He was unwilling to even raise his eyes toward heaven but beat his chest. He was grieving over his sin.
We mourn our own sin. But we also mourn over sin in the world. We cannot NOT mourn the sin around us and the suffering it causes.
How does that result in us being blessed? The person who mourns finds comfort. Going to Christ, he (or she) can take comfort in the fact that his sins are washed away. But there’s more to look forward to.
Let’s go back to Isaiah. We’d got to verse 2. Isaiah anticipated that Christ would comfort all who mourn.
Now look at verse 3. Isaiah looks forward to God’s people receiving ‘a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.’ Jesus will move his people from a place of mourning to a place of rejoicing. That’s something many of us experience when we come to Christ. But that’s not all!
Go on to verse 4. Isaiah prophesies: ‘Then they will rebuild THE ANCIENT RUINS, they will raise up the former DEVASTATIONS; And they will repair THE RUINED CITIES, THE DESOLATIONS of many generations…’
Ruins, devastation, desolation. What comes to mind? Does it seem like a fair description of the world today? The New Testament tells us that devastation will increase as we approach the time when Christ comes again.
But Isaiah prophesies that our world will be rebuit, raised up, repaired. When? Isaiah has been prophesying about Christ and what he will do. Christ didn’t sort out ruins, devastation and desolation when he came 2000 years ago. I believe Isaiah is looking forward to the time when Christ comes again. Then real repair and restoration will happen.
In recent decades, many theologians have asserted that creation will be renewed. That’s based on, for example, Romans 8. But Isaiah says, ‘THEY will rebuild … THEY will raise up … THEY will repair.’ It seems that GOD'S PEOPLE – us! – will be very involved in this restoration work.
Let’s recap this Beatitude. The one who mourns will find comfort. Grieving over sin he or she goes to Christ and finds forgiveness and acceptance. Grieving changes to the oil of gladness. A disheartened spirit is replaced by a cloak of praise. But there’s more. We grieve over this desolate, broken world. But we find comfort in the assurance that this isn’t how the story ends. This broken world will be restored. I don’t know about you but I’m really excited at the prospect that we as God’s people will be involved in that restoration. That will be really fulfilling! Jesus says, ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.’ Isaiah says the same thing, but he adds a lot more detail and gives us lots of reasons to take comfort.
But let’s backtrack for a moment. Jesus calls us to mourn. Does that mean we need to have long faces all the time? No, it doesn’t. We have lots of reasons to be joyful as well as lots of reasons to mourn.
But there will be times when sin and suffering in the world SHOULD deeply affect us. At those times we should mourn and it will be evident that we’re mourning. Isaiah described Jesus as ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’ [Isaiah 53:3]. Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb. When he grieved, it was evident.
BEATITUDE NUMBER THREE
Beatitude Number Three is ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth’. Once again, this is counterintuitive. Meek people are submissive, not assertive. We can’t imagine meek people ending up with very much – let alone the earth! But a day will come when God’s people, the meek, WILL inherit the earth.
In the previous two Beatitudes we’ve seen that Jesus’ thoughts mirror ideas in the Old Testament. What about this? Is this an Old Testament thought? Absolutely! Here’s Psalm 37:11:
"But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace” [ESV].
So, once again, Jesus is expressing an Old Testament thought.
What does it mean to be meek? The Greek word literally means ‘gentle-force.’ The dictionary tells us that meek means humble and submissive, not proud or self-willed, patient and unresentful under injury or reproach. Jesus was meek. Paul mentioned ‘the meekness and gentleness of Christ…’ [2 Corinthians 10:1]. We see those qualities of meekness in him. Being meek doesn’t mean that we’re fearful or timid. Jesus was neither of those things. If we are meek, we follow in Jesus’ footsteps. And there’s a very good result. As God’s people we’ll inherit eternal life. That’s already amazing. But there’s more: we inherit a kingdom! How will that happen? The meek won’t seize the kingdom. At some point, Jesus will come into our world again and he will grant the kingdom to his people.
A FINAL OBSERVATION
I’ve heard people talk as though Jesus was giving a revolutionary NEW teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. It may be revolutionary but I hope that it has been evident from these first three Beatitudes that it is NOT new. The principles which Jesus set out in these Beatitudes are stated clearly in the Old Testament. In what we’ve looked at so far, Jesus hasn’t revised any Old Testament teaching. On the contrary, he has affirmed it.
To summarise. Jesus calls us to be poor in spirit. To mourn. To be meek. Those are three steps to enormous blessing. We enter the kingdom of heaven, God’s kingdom. We will be comforted. We will inherit the earth. Now it’s up to us to put them into practice.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 27th February, 2022. Quotes are from NASB except in one place as noted.
