If you would turn now in scripture to Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five, final page 1029 in your pew Bibles. I'd like to draw your attention this evening to the first four verses of Matthew chapter five. Although at this time I will read through verse 12. Hear God's word from the gospel according to Matthew in chapter five. Seeing the crowds, he, that is Jesus, went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And 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 satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Thus for the reading of God's holy word, may he bless it and all the purposes for which he has appointed it in our hearing this evening. Well, two weeks ago, we finished the Song of Solomon, and this evening, we're gonna begin looking at the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps you've gone from the least preached portion of God's word to one of the most preached portions of God's word. And yet, in many ways, as many controversial questions could be asked of the Sermon on the Mount, as have been asked on the Song of Solomon. People debate how to even understand what Jesus is doing in these three chapters of Matthew's gospel. Is he giving, some wonder, a description of the future kingdom? Is this a picture of what life will look like in the eternal state? And so in some sense, it doesn't describe our life in the here and now. Others would argue, no, this is a list of requirements for entering the kingdom of God, for becoming a disciple, for being part of the people of God. So something more like a checklist. And when you have completed the checklist, then aha, you have achieved the status of a disciple. You've graduated from being a novice to now being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Others take quite the opposite view. That if you took this as a checklist, you would have no check marks on your list. That, in fact, this is designed merely to drive you to Christ, to make you realize that you could never be any of these things, that you could never be a disciple, that you are to read the Sermon on the Mount and despair, and in your desperation, turn to Christ. Others in certain parts of the church and in certain parts of church history have seen this as a word for some believers, for those who are more mature, who have a higher Christian ethic than others. Perhaps it's for the clergy or for monks or those in other holy orders. Still others see it as instructions for ordering society. You want to know how the civil, excuse me, how the civil society is to be ordered, look at the Sermon on the Mount. Is this instructions for pursuing a social gospel? Still others have seen the Sermon on the Mount as a mistake. That Jesus was laying out for his disciples how life in the church could work But the church has failed, and so we will not and have not seen this aspiration of the Servant on the Mount fulfilled. Or is it something else entirely? Perhaps, as you heard some of these options, you thought, oh, maybe there's some truth there, or perhaps that one is true, or maybe that's getting closer to what Jesus is doing in the Servant on the Mount. But to answer the question, What is Jesus doing in the Sermon on the Mount? We first must take a step back and see what is Jesus doing in the Gospel of Matthew as a whole? Where are we in his ministry? In the previous chapter, in Matthew chapter four, he has just called and collected his disciples, called them and brought them to himself, made them his followers. And now in chapter five, verse one, he climbs a mountain to speak these hard sayings to these people that he has just made his own. What does this remind you of? A man of God climbing a mountain to speak hard things to a people who have just been made God's own. You may know that in Bible we have scenes that when you get to a certain collection of actions or even key words, your ears are supposed to perk up and say, yeah, I've heard this before. For instance, in the Old Testament, if you find a man going to a well and meeting a woman, you know what's going to happen. You know that this is a sort of scene where certain results ensue. We have this in current culture, too. If I said to you, a priest, a pastor, and a rabbi walk into a bar, you know I'm not giving you a theological lesson. You know I'm telling you a joke. Well, so in Scripture, when a man of God climbs a mountain and speaks, delivers God's word to his newly gathered and constituted people, telling them how to live, your mind is supposed to immediately think of Moses on Mount Sinai as God redeemed his people Israel from slavery to Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, gathered them among the base of Mount Sinai, and there delivered his covenant through Moses to his redeemed and restored kingdom of priests and holy nation as he describes them. So here the Lord Jesus has gathered his disciples to himself, called them out, labeled them as his own, and now, having done so, gives them his law, his instruction, his Torah. So many times when believers read the Sermon on the Mount, They get discouraged. They even become despondent. They think, I have to live up to this, or Jesus will never receive me. Jesus will never accept me. Or we know other believers who blow it off, who say, I'm free. I'm in grace. I'm not under the law. In one sense, that is true. Covenantally speaking, we are under Grace, not law, but here the Lord Jesus Christ to his redeemed, his restored, his gathered disciples, gives them the bread of life, gives them instruction, gives them words by which they may show that they are his people. Think of the solemnity on Mount Sinai. You had thunder and lightning and quaking and the finger of God etching on tablets of stone his law. Here the solemnity is communicated differently. It's actually communicated in verse two where Matthew tells us that Jesus opened his mouth and spoke and taught them. That phrase, he opened his mouth, was used when making a weighty pronouncement. You wouldn't say, the man opened his mouth and delivered his grocery list. You would say, he opened his mouth to make a pronouncement which people were to sit up, take heed, and listen. So understanding this term in the mouth this way, as the new Moses, as the new prophet of God, delivering God's good law to his gathered and redeemed people. Will make great sense of what he does in this sermon. That's why he can say in verse 17, I have not come to abolish the law, but I have come to fulfill it. That's why he says in verse 19, whoever lacks is one of the least of these commandments. That's why he could say in verse 21, you have heard that it was said of old, you shall not murder, quoting those same 10 commandments. Likewise, verse 27, Jesus is not replacing Moses. Jesus is magnifying Moses. Jesus is telling us, his disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit in a way that Old Testament saints could only dream of, how we can love and serve our Savior, the one who has redeemed us not from slavery to Egypt, but slavery to our own wickedness, slavery to our own sinful flesh, slavery to sin. And as a result, yes, we look different. Yes, we are, as John Stott called it, a Christian counterculture. We will look different as we obey this law. And so with that in mind, we begin with what are known as the Beatitudes in verse 3. The Beatitudes simply from the Latin word for blessed, which begins each one. We know these statements, they're classic, they're concise, they're memorable, they're poetic. But don't get so comfortable with them that you forget how radical they would have been to Jesus' listeners and how they ought to be to us. This is, after all, no way to start a new religion, is it? This is no way to gather a popularity to yourself, encouraging people to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to be hungry and thirsty, to be persecuted, to be reviled. Oh no, this is not the way in which the world would gather a people to itself. And yet look at the sweet blessing that ensues. Look at what the Lord promises his disciples, his very kingdom, comfort, inheritance of the earth itself, satisfaction, mercy, being called sons of God, indeed, seeing God himself. We may ask, how is this possible? Simply put, it's the Lord who is doing the blessing. We trust him to honor our weaknesses that the Beatitudes call for. For we know that we would rather often take things into our own hands, do we not? But friends, this also means something else. If this is not the way in which the world would look for blessedness, we must remember that blessedness will often not look like we might want it to look. To be blessed by God does not mean the current rewards that the world offers us. And even many in the church will tell you to be blessed by God must mean everything you want in a worldly way you get, your homes, your cars, your vacations, your toys, your earthly comforts. But Church of Christ, this is not the blessedness that Jesus illustrates for us. We can say that these are, in a way, mostly future blessings. But they seep in, they ooze, their aroma is clearly caught in this life. as well as we enjoy their first fruits. So let us look at the first two Beatitudes as our Savior makes clear to us that for his disciples, for the disciples of the divine law-giving Savior, he offers comfort in his kingdom to those who mourn their sin and turn to him. comfort at his kingdom for those who mourn their sin and turn to him. To look at these Beatitudes, we'll ask two very simple questions. Who are the blessed? And what is the blessing? Verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In the Old Testament, what was it to be poor? In the Old Testament, to be poor was one who desperately needed to be cared for by others. And does not scripture again and again tell those with the means of the Old Testament to take care of those who needed it? Whether it was orphans, those whose parents could not take care of them because they were deceased or otherwise out of the picture. To the widow, those who did not have a husband in her life to work the land, to provide for the family. Whether it be those who were struck by famine and were in danger of starvation. Those who were poor in the Old Testament were those who desperately needed to be cared for by others, but ultimately needed to be cared for by God. For as Moses and the rest of the Pentateuch makes very abundantly clear, all the blessings that the people of God were to have in the promised land they were to share with the poor were gifts of God. They were to enjoy the fruits of the land that they themselves had not planted. They were to receive the bounty of the land. that they themselves had not earned, but that the Lord had given to them. And so they were to share with the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the sick, the poor. That is true of those who are poor according to worldly measures. The exact same is true for those who are poor in spirit. those who desperately need to be cared for by God. But of course the question is, what does it mean to be poor in spirit? What does it mean to be spiritually poor? to ask the question, why are we in need of care that only God can provide in a spiritual way, should get us very close to the answer. For what is it in our spiritual poverty that only God can fix, can cure, can solve? It must be our sin. It must be the disaster caused by our rebellion against him. It must be, yes, the brokenness of this world, but the shattering of our own illusions of self-sufficiency, of having anything to offer to God that he could say, oh, you are rich, you are wealthy, you are doing well. No, he looks at us and our sin and says, you are poor and wretched and miserable. And he has mercy on those people. Those who recognize their inability to save themselves. Those who admit their spiritual bankruptcy. Those blessed here by Christ in Matthew five verse three are those who are aware of and or willing to admit their recognition of their own need and come to the only one who can meet it. to the one who in Christ has provided salvation for them. This is how Jesus begins to describe the life of a disciple. The very first thing he says about those who are seeking to follow him as his disciple are those who recognize their spiritual poverty, those who recognize their need for him. The Lord says through the prophet Zephaniah, I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. But then the prophet goes on and says, they shall seek refuge in the name of Yahweh. It's one thing to be poor. But that means nothing if you're not one who therefore then seeks refuge in the name of Yahweh. Cannot help but think of the rich young ruler, whom Jesus will meet later in his public ministry, who was indeed very rich. And Jesus asked him to sell all that he had, not because Jesus thought he needed to be materially poor, but because Jesus knew that if he did so, he would demonstrate his own need of Christ. He would demonstrate that to be wealthy means nothing in the final accounting. That as rich as he was, he was spiritually poor. He was desperately needy. And the rich young ruler refused. And the evangelists tell us it was because he was very rich. It was precisely because he refused to acknowledge that though he was greatly wealthy, that that, to his accounting, was not worth giving up to admit his own spiritual poverty. He would not follow after Christ. Because ironically, he was not poor in spirit. He was not poor by the world's accounting, but he wasn't poor in spirit either. He was haughty and wealthy with his own self-importance and ego. Well, if that's the identity of those who are blessed, what is their blessing? What do they have promised to them by Christ? Nothing less than the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has been the announcement that John the Baptist made that a king was coming. It is the content of Jesus preaching when he comes on the scene in the gospels. The kingdom of heaven is a lot more than simply where do I go when I die, although it is that. But the kingdom of heaven encompasses God as one's benevolent ruler. the Heavenly Father as one's protector, the Creator as one's warrior, the Savior as one's king. This is what it means to be part of a kingdom that has Christ as its head, that he is your ruler, your protector, your Savior, your warrior. As we read and confessed even this evening from the Shorter Catechism about what it means to have Christ as your king, that is what it means to be and to have his kingdom. So you can see now why it is connected to where you go when you die because it's that eternal security that Christ has won for all of his people. Christ elsewhere in the Gospels compares the kingdom to a feast. He says the kingdom of God is like a feast which was thrown for the people of God. Or think of the parable of the two sons, one good and one bad from the Pharisees' perspective. And yet, who was it who had the feast thrown for him? Who was the one who, by Jesus' reckoning, had entered the kingdom of heaven? It was the one that was poor. It was the one who had come to the end of himself and recognized his need for his father to give him sustenance, even life, for he was truly spiritually poor, that prodigal son. That's why the message that Jesus preaches in the Gospels can be summarized as repent for the kingdom of heaven is here. If the kingdom of heaven is here, if the visible reign of Christ has been made manifest, then the only way to enter it is by repentance, by spiritual poverty. We could say the only way to be worthy of the kingdom is by acknowledging that you're not worthy. The only way to be worthy of the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom for those who are poor in spirit, is to say, Christ, I am not worthy. Yea, indeed, I am poor. I am poor in spirit. But you have promised me the riches of your kingdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Christ continues in verse four with the second beatitude we shall consider this evening. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Again, let us ask, who is it that is blessed in this verse? What type of mourning does Jesus mean here? He can't simply mean anyone who mourns. For we know that there are those who mourn when they don't get what they want. We know that there are those who mourn when their idols are taken away from them. We know there are those who mourn when wickedness loses and righteousness gains. We know that there are those who mourn for all sorts of reasons that Christ is not referencing here. How can there be a sort of mourning that receives blessedness? What sort of mourning is this? Really, friends, we must read it in context. It flows right from the previous blessing, from the previous beatitude. If verse three tells us that blessedness comes to those who acknowledged their sin, well, then this one takes it one step further, those who mourn it, those who recognize it for what it is, those who grieve at the wickedness of their own hearts. Mourning sin as sin is much different than mourning the fact that you got caught. It goes beyond mourning the consequences. It is good to mourn the consequences of sin. It is good to mourn the baleful effects that you see around you caused by the wickedness of your own heart and the wickedness of others. But to mourn sin as sin, to recognize that this is the transgression of the law of a good and gracious God, who gave it to me for my benefit, for my spiritual nourishment, to recognize the rebellion of hearts like Adam and Eve's, who thought that they knew better, that they were wiser, that there were shortcuts to spiritual wisdom and maturity and knowledge, to recognize the rebellion of one's heart. Scripture is helpfully replete with examples of what it means to mourn sin in this way. It is appropriate to mourn the sins of others. For instance, in Psalm 119, the psalmist mourns, my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. Mourning the sin that he saw. Ezekiel called the faithful those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed. In Ezekiel chapter 9. It is appropriate to mourn the sin of others, but how much more should we mourn the sin of our own heart? Surely the majority of our mourning should be for that which we have committed. Ezra prayed in Ezra chapter 10 when he considers his own sin. He prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God. Or the Apostle Paul, when recognizing his own sin in Romans chapter 7 verse 24, mourns, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Paul, by his example, shows us what it means to be one who mourns sin. Believer in Christ, I ask you, when have you mourned your own sin? When have you mourned the ways in which you have been unfaithful to your heavenly maker? When have you considered the sins of your own heart and truly mourned? Again, not mourning because your boss caught you shirking work, not mourning simply because you were penalized for your transgression, but mourning the vestiges of the old man that yet have a zombie-like existence in your heart, the old man who is dead, and yet has some sway over you as a child of God. These are the kinds of disciples Christ desires, Christ seeks, Christ develops, Christ matures through his spirit. Those who mourn their sin. But we can mourn, we can mourn with confidence and with hope, because Christ tells us that those who mourn in this way are blessed, for they shall be comforted. They shall be comforted. What comfort could there be in mourning? Well, I just read from Romans 7 verse 24, but what does the very next verse say? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That there's the comfort, the antidote to the mourning is the good news of Christ Jesus our Lord. Or the very next verse after that, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There, brother and sister, is your comfort. There is that which uplifts the mournful soul. There is the balm that assuages the pain of mourning. of the recognition of one's sin, that as great as my sin is, my Savior is also greater. This is the good news of discipleship, that as we come under the conviction of Christ, come under the conviction of his law, we receive the assurance of Christ, that there is no condemnation now for that sin. Because if you are my disciple, your status, that which defines you is forgiven, pure, righteous, holy in Christ. You may be comforted. You have comfort, dear one, as you mourn your sin and look to Christ. I would say that is the only true comfort. We don't mourn or wail over our sins as a way to atone for them, but as a way to deepen and to grow in appreciation and fondness for the one who removes our sins from us, for Christ himself. Do you appreciate the word comfort? More when you consider that there is a worldly comfort that is such a quick and easy substitute for true mourning and true comfort. Comfort may be one of the biggest idols of our age, is it not? To have my life just the way I want it. To be able to have enough money to spend anything that I set my heart's desire on. that I might have all the luxuries that the modern world can afford. As long as I can get that, I'll be happy. That's a powerful idol. That's a siren song that is hard to ignore, to resist. But do not be fooled, that is not comfort. That is a cliff over which you will fall. to your spiritual death if ultimately your heart goes to idols. For only Christ can offer comfort. Only Christ can provide that which ultimately comforts those who mourn. We could say that Christ comforts us. We could also simply say Christ is our comfort. In Luke chapter two, when the Savior is born, he is called the Consolation of Israel. In his public ministry, he declares his status as the Messiah by quoting Isaiah 61, where the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to comfort all who mourn. Surely Christ had that verse ringing in his ears when he delivered this beatitude. To grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. Church of Christ, in him you are oaks of righteousness. You are comforted by the fact that your sins have been washed away in the blood of the righteous one who went to the tree for you and for me. For many, the Christmas, the winter season can be a depressing, a lonely time. whether it be for the dusk that falls around 345, or the family members who are no longer around the dinner, the table, or the Christmas celebration. These things have a way of discouraging us, of discomforting us. But in this time, know that Christ is your comfort. Christ is your consolation. One of the great Christmas hymns of old is taken directly from Isaiah chapter 40, where the Lord tells his prophet, comfort, comfort my people, says the Lord. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. The Lord says, my people will have comfort for this reason and this reason alone, that their sin is atoned for, their iniquity is pardoned, that through Christ, those who mourn do and must have comfort. Church of Christ, you have a divine law-giving Savior who has given you this instruction that you may know how to follow him as his disciple. As you mourn, as you are poor in spirit, know that you have the eternal comfort of the kingdom of God that is forever yours in Christ. Let us pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the sweet balm of Christ, that he is for us our only comfort. Indeed, as the catechism tells us, in life and in death, for only comfort, Jesus Christ, our Lord. May we be his people, not because we have somehow wormed our way into his good graces, but that he in his grace has welcomed in us pitiful sinners by the blood of his atonement shed on our behalf. This we ask in his name, amen.