People of God, we now continue with the preaching of God's Word, and this time, please open your Bibles in the Gospel of Matthew. Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, from verse 1 through 12, what is called the Beatitudes. Matthew, chapter 5, from 1 through 12. And before we read God's Word, let's ask God for his help in the preaching of his Word. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the blessing to sing praises to your name. Thank you for experiencing your presence in the midst of us. And also thank you for the opportunity for you to come in your Word with the power of the Holy Spirit and talk to us. Help us to receive your Word, O Lord, and put it into practice. We pray this in Jesus' name alone. Amen. Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, And seeing the multitudes, he, that is to say Jesus, went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Amen. May the Lord bless His word and write it upon our hearts. Brothers and sisters, Matthew 5 comes right after the beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was tempted by Satan in the desert He overcame the tempter and the temptations, and he began his Galilean ministry. That is to say, he was in the north of Israel. He was preaching there in that area. And that area, that region in Israel, Galilee, was, as we read in chapter 4, verse 15 and 16, a region of Gentiles in that time, and even before, a lot of people who were not Jews dwell in that area. A lot of Gentiles, Assyrians, Babylonians, and from the East, they live in that area, and they were transported there. If you remember your Old Testament history, one of the Assyrian kings when the northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians. And since that time, many Gentiles stay in that area. So Jesus and his disciples and the Jewish people in that time who live in Galilee, they were surrounded by Gentiles. It was not only Jews. They were surrounded by Gentiles. And now if you remember, By that time, the Roman Empire had conquered Israel. So there were Romans and Assyrians and all kind of Gentiles. And that also characterized the culture, the spiritual condition of those people. 4.16 says, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and he came to that area in darkness, where they were idolaters, worshiping idols, following their own ideas and superstitions, but the light came. Jesus Christ came with the gospel, preaching the way of salvation, and he said to them, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. So how are we now to live as Christians in the kingdom of heaven? Well, that is what we see here in Matthew chapter 5 from verse 1 through 12. Jesus says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And that reminds us that Jesus, if he has a kingdom, boys and girls, if Jesus has a kingdom, then he is a king. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. So the one who is talking in Matthew 5 is Jesus, our great King. And as we read in Matthew 28, He is the King who has all the power and authority, not only on earth as earthly kings, but He has all power and authority also in heaven. So this King is divine. This king is almighty. Heaven and earth are part of his reign. He is the almighty king. So he is the one who comes and tells his people in that area and those who listen to him, he comes and says, I, the king, I'm going to give you the rules to live in my kingdom. We read in verse 1 of chapter 5, And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain, And when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Jesus was preaching about all Galilee, as we read in 4.23. A lot of people who were sick, demon-possessed, paralytics, epileptics came to him and he healed them. He was a powerful king. And that's why when Matthew 5 wants this, and seeing the multitudes, it means that it wasn't only his disciples, the apostles, the ones who had called at this time, were following him, but multitudes, a lot of people were following him. But then we read that he went up on a mountain. It seems that Jesus, even though he's not rejecting the multitudes, but he wants to have like a kind of private meeting with his own disciples. He went up on a mountain. Boys and girls, you also have to know that Galilee, in the north of Israel, is a mountainous area. A lot of mountains. Okay? A lot of mountains. He went up on a mountain. This king went up on a mountain. Do you boys and girls remember who went up on a mountain in the Old Testament? And he received the Ten Commandments? Who was that man? His name was Moses. And we see that Jesus is going up on a mountain. And it seems that Matthew wants us to see this connection between Moses and Jesus, but notice the difference. Moses was just a man, and Moses is receiving the Word of God, the Ten Commandments, but this Jesus is greater than Moses, because he's not receiving, commandments, but he's actually giving commandments. Jesus is the lawgiver. Jesus is God himself. Jesus is the one who will teach his people, his disciples, his church, you and I, how to live in his kingdom, in his covenant. He went up on a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. You know, that expression is actually meaningful. He sat to teach. As you see, I am not sitting, right, and teaching. That is not the custom in our Western world, right? But in that world, in that time, teachers used to sit to teach. I don't know if you remember reading through the Gospels that when Jesus was by the Sea of Galilee, multitudes were oppressing him and he went on a boat and sat. We are like, well, he should have stand. Well, you know, that was not the custom. And this is so meaningful because Jesus in sitting is actually telling us that he's not only the great king, but he's a great prophet and teacher of his people. Remember the scribes and Pharisees who sat in the chair of Moses? Well, Jesus is greater than Moses. Jesus is the greater teacher. He is the divine teacher, and he is going to teach us. That's why verse 2 says, Then he opened his mouth and taught them, saying... Once again, if we remember Exodus chapter 20, we read that God said these words to Moses. And we read here that Jesus opened his mouth and taught them the same. So these words come from the divine king and teacher of the church. And we must pay attention. We must pay attention because he's going to talk to his church, to you and me. What a great blessing to have Jesus himself as a teacher, sitting there and teaching, instructing us. But let me tell you that his Word is a living Word, and it is Jesus himself who is teaching us when the Word of God is proclaimed. We are receiving no other teaching but the teaching of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and he wants us to tell us how to live as covenant people, as members of his kingdom, citizens of his kingdom. That's why we also read in verse 2 that he, in verse 1, he was seated, his disciples came to him. You see, even though a lot of people were around, but this teaching was first and foremost for the church, right? His disciples, for you and me. It is for everyone, but in the first place, it is for those who are followers, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, brothers and sisters, we read these beatitudes, these blessings. We read blessed again and again, from verse 3 to verse... 11, 12, we read, blessed are the poor in the spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are the merciful. It's very interesting that Jesus Christ actually begins his teaching to his church by saying, you are blessed. Remember again, they are in Galilee, a region of darkness and shadow of death. But when the light comes, no matter what your condition is, no matter how your family is, no matter how sinful you are, but when the gospel comes to you, when the gospel comes to a community, the lights are transformed and we're taken out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and then we are blessed. We're truly blessed. So we don't need to be millionaires or popular, famous, but if we belong to Jesus, He is our King, our Teacher, we are truly blessed. Our blessing comes from Him. You are blessed. We are blessed. What a wonderful thing. So many people are looking for meaning, significance in their lives. They don't have identity. They are looking for identity here and there. And people take advantage of that. The world offers this and that. The world is like a huge market in which people are offering this or that. I don't know if you have been to a Hispanic market. I don't know if we actually have something like that here in America. But if you go to Latin America and you go to the market, to an actual market, people will actually come there just speaking loudly and offering fish, offering fruit, offering this and that. And they come and say, take this. This is better than mine. This is a good price. And she's just telling you what to buy, to shop. And you can hear a lot of people doing that at the same time. Well, the world is like a huge market as well. And it's telling people, come and get this. This will give meaning to your life. You'll be happy. And sadly, we Christians buy that as well. But Jesus says, you are blessed. Already, you are blessed. But notice that Jesus' blessing to his people is different from the standards of the world. Because he begins by saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc. You see, Jesus is telling us to not look for your identity, for the meaning, for blessedness according to the standards of the world. In Christ, you are blessed. And the standards of Jesus are different. The world doesn't like the poor in spirit, those who are humble, those who are tender-hearted, those who are gentle. They don't like those people, but Jesus says, you are blessed if you are poor in spirit, and the kingdom belongs to you by grace. You are blessed. You are blessed if you mourn, for they shall be comforted. In Mexico, we have a saying that goes like this, men do not cry, true men do not cry. And Jesus says, blessed are those who mourn, those who cry, those who see their sin and truly repent and say, Lord, I have offended you. Jesus says, those are blessed who mourn, who have a sense of their sin, And then they turn to the Lord and say, forgive me for my sin. Because when you repent from your sin, you stop sinning, you stop offending, you stop hurting people. And you say, Lord, forgive me, I want to change, but I can't, but you can't change me. But the world mocks those who are humble. The world mocks those who cry. And Jesus says, blessed are the meek. those who are also gentle, those who do not take revenge, those who do not take advantage. That's when Jesus himself says, learn from me that I am meek and humble in spirit. Bless those who are meek, they shall inherit the earth. All of these expressions, the kingdom of heaven is theirs, they shall inherit the earth, they come from the Old Testament. And actually the word blessed, this blessed expressions, they come from the Old Testament as well. So Jesus is the teacher of his people, and his people is made of people who live in the Old Testament and New Testament times. Psalm 1, you remember, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of evil men. Blessed is the man who does this and that. And Jesus comes and says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You see, brothers and sisters, boys and girls, you probably at school will find these boys and girls who are bullies, who have other friends and like to hurt people, and they don't like those who are humble, those who are meek, those who are gentle. But Jesus says, that is your identity. That is who you are in Christ. We should all be meek, humble. Jesus is not talking about a false humility or meekness, but a true one in which we repent. We are humble. We are not easily offended. We always struggle with that. Do not dare to say anything to me. And I get so angry. We are not meek. We have to ask the Lord to be meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In that time, a lot of people, Jesus' disciples, the multitudes who were following Jesus, they were oppressed by their countrymen. They were oppressed by the Romans. Jews oppressed other Jews. The poor were oppressed, and they were hungering and thirsting for righteousness. They wanted to be liberated from that. And Jesus comes and says, there is freedom in me. If you are in me, I am in you, and you are free. But also, hunger and thirst for righteousness means that we should fight against evil, injustices, unrighteousness in this world. And what is the characteristic of this world, among other things? Unrighteousness. Unrighteous people. People who laugh at those who want to be righteous. But Jesus says, you are blessed if you are righteous. If you are after righteousness, you shall be filled. Jesus continues to say, blessed are those who are merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Merciful, to be merciful, boys and girls, means that when you see someone in a poor condition, suffering, people who do not have food, people who do not have clothes, or people who are struggling financially. You don't only say, oh, I'm sorry for you. Yes, you say that, but then if God gives you the ability, you go and help them. That is true mercy. It's not just having pity, but helping those people. And brothers and sisters, that's what the Lord does with us all the time. He's merciful to us. Without Him, we have no hope. But He saw our condition, that we were in sin, that we were unrighteous, that we were proud people, that we were those who were arrogant, that we were not after righteousness. And even then, He came and had mercy on us and saved us. from our own sin. And Jesus continues talking about the pure in heart, the peacemakers. You see, those are the standards of the kingdom. Those are the true blessed ones. So do not pay attention to the world. Know that you are blessed in Christ. know that this divine king and teacher is telling you what your true identity is. But brothers and sisters, we live in a country in which we enjoy freedom, in which we come to church without no problem, and that is just such a wonderful blessing. But, as you know, little by little, even more today, laws are being issued against the church. against the gospel. Government and leaders in our country do not like what the gospel teaches. And now people are opposing even more openly. And we Christians sometimes come to believe that we should not suffer at all. But Jesus says then in verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We are not looking for trouble, so to say. We're not going out there in order to say, I am a believer, here I am, persecute me, kill me, or hurt me. No. But if persecution comes, know that you are what? Blessed in Christ. It is hard. Humanly speaking, we cannot do that. What's our first reaction? Go away. But Jesus says, if you are persecuted for righteousness sake. Notice, for righteousness sake, not for other things, but for righteousness, for following Jesus, for obeying the gospel, you are blessed. Yes, people will speak evil about you. They will insult you and revile you, but Jesus says, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. I think we all have experienced that. people saying evil things about us. But Jesus says, you are blessed when that happens. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. We just read in the catechism that Jesus gathers from the beginning to the end of the world his church. And we read here that Jesus says, for Saul, they were persecuted, the prophets who were before you. So the true people, the true church, the true members of the covenant, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, they had something in common. They were persecuted. They were hated for being faithful to the Lord. But Jesus says, great is your reward in heaven. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that our reward in heaven is greater, way greater than we have here? You know, sometimes I myself fall into the temptation of having more and more and finding my happiness in earthly material things. And the internet and the radio and the TV, they take care that you become full of those ideas. that your happiness is here in this world. But Jesus says, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Yes, great is your reward in heaven. Rejoice, be exceedingly glad. That's not a usual way of speaking, right? Rejoice. We don't say, today I am joyful and exceedingly glad. That is a Jewish expression that denotes that This is the best happiness, rejoicing that you can get. And that's what we have in Jesus Christ. If you're going through family problems, if you're going through personal problems, work problems, you should know, you must know, that you are blessed if you are in Jesus Christ. That no matter what the world says, you are blessed. Your identity is in Christ. He is your king. He is your teacher. He is your Lord. He is your Savior. Brothers and sisters, but notice, each beatitude describes an aspect of the Christian life. So it is not that we pick what we want. Okay, I don't want to be persecuted. I don't want to be meek, right? No. I want to be what Jesus wants me to be. And this means I have to be humble. I have to be meek. I have to mourn for my sin. I have to be merciful. These are all aspects, characteristics of the Christian life. Have you failed any of those? Let me see. Yes. Most of them. All of them, right? We have failed. How is it that we are blessed then? By grace and mercy. Because our Lord is faithful even when we are unfaithful. So brothers and sisters, boys and girls, you must know that you are blessed. You must know that you belong to Jesus Christ and you must know that what He thinks of you is the most important thing for all of us. He's telling us that we are already blessed. Do we really believe it? May the Lord help us to follow and to live according to the laws of our great King and Teacher. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the Gospel. We thank You for our congregation. Help us, O Lord, to embrace this blessedness, to believe it with all our heart, and stop looking for happiness outside of Christ, because our happiness is in Him, and only in Him. Thank you for our children. Help us to teach them, O Lord. Forgive us when we do not. Help us to be faithful in teaching our children that they are members of the covenant and members of the kingdom of God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.