Yours Is The Kingdom Of Heaven - Matthew 5:3b Series

Matthew 5:1-12 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Introduction

I would not trade my Christian upbringing for the world. However one disadvantage of growing up with God’s Word is the fact that it is easy to become inoculated to the more extreme statements in Scripture. You hear them so many times growing up you forget how outrageous and shocking they really are. And the beatitudes are a great example of that. Jesus begins with blessed are the poor in spirit. Most every Christian knows that statement, and yet is there any evidence that we have considered what it means? There is a movement that has been very popular in Christendom over the past 150 years known as the Higher Life movement. People by the millions want to know how to attain the higher life. I am still waiting for the lower life movement to get some traction.

Isaiah 66:2 This is the one I esteem: he who is poor and broken in spirit, and trembles at my word.

God has always esteemed the poor in spirit. While the world seeks self-esteem, the people of God care about how God esteems them. And God highly esteems the poor in spirit – so much so that the very first line in the Sermon on the Mount is about how blessed they are.

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

One characteristic of Jesus’ teaching is that He very often said things that all by themselves, taken in isolation, don’t make sense. Happy are the spiritually destitute beggars. Happy are those who mourn. Statements like that, I believe, were intended to force us to take a deeper look, because on their face they don’t seem to make any sense. And I am convinced that was Jesus’ intention. Jesus routinely said things that sounded like a contradiction without offering an explanation in order to force us to stop and think carefully about what He meant. Statements like this (and there are many of them in the Sermon on the Mount) should drive us to think and study and pray and search the Scriptures until we understand how it makes sense.

And if you do that with the beatitudes – if you search the Scriptures – you will find that many of the things Jesus said in the beatitudes came from famous passages in the Old Testament; especially Isaiah 61. And that should come as no surprise to anyone given the fact that Jesus taught that Isaiah 61 was about Him. When Jesus preached His first sermon in Nazareth in Luke 4 they handed Him the scroll and He turned right to Isaiah 61 and read the first two verses.

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

So Isaiah 61 is a chapter about Jesus’ ministry and kingdom so it is no surprise that the first couple beatitudes come out of that chapter.

Isaiah 61:3-4 …He has sent me to … 3 provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.