You turn in your Bibles if you have them and would like to follow. I'd like to read from the end of Matthew 4 and through verse 12 of chapter 5, which illustrates something that undoubtedly has been pointed out to you before, that chapter divisions in the Bible are not original. And you need to watch in your Bible reading to see if, in fact, a chapter's end does end the thought. You will have things like 1 Corinthians 10, which starts with the word four. It means it's picking up on what was at the end of chapter nine, and this is not uncommon, and we have that here tonight before us. So, Matthew 4.23 through 5.12, hear the word of God. And Jesus went through all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics, and he healed them. Great crowds followed him from Galilee, from the Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. When he sat down, disciples came to him. He opened his mouth, and he 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, they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in 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, 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." The Sermon on the Mount. Where does it come in this gospel? Interesting to put things in their context, it's important to do that. Matthew's context begins, as you know, with the gospel of the genealogy, followed by the announcement to Joseph that he should take his wife, who is pregnant, followed by the birth of our Lord and the visit of these strange people from the East, we call Magi. their gifts, Herod's fury at not finding out where this child is. So his mother and Joseph and he fleed Egypt until the death of Herod and come back. And then the next event we read in Matthew is of Jesus' baptism. We have nothing between that return and the baptism at which time a spirit comes upon Jesus in a particular way. to equip him for public ministry. The voice of the father, this is my beloved son. What does the spirit do? Immediately leads him into the wilderness, 40 days, 40 nights, no food to be tested by the enemy. And then after that, we read what we did. Slightly before this, he comes back into Galilee, he's teaching. going from synagogue to synagogue, and he acquires four disciples. And we're aware of those four, Andrew, his brother Peter, and James and his brother John. And that brings us to our text. Now, this is so striking, isn't it? Our text begins with telling us what the Lord Jesus had been doing, which I've just recounted some of, but it's more specific. He was going into the synagogues, he was teaching, and he was healing all these who came to him. And where were they coming from? Not just from Galilee, they were coming from Syria, they were coming from across the Jordan, probably from Lebanon. Throngs of people were coming because they had heard about this man who was healing people. He healed them all. And then chapter five begins with him seeing the thrones and his activity. He goes up on a mountain. He sat down. He called his disciples to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them. Now, when did we last read of someone, after God had done many miracles amid great crowds, going up on a mountain to receive and teach God's word? Moses. Notice the difference. What was that mountain like? Were there people coming up the mountain to meet with this person there? Smoke, fire, blasting of ram's horns, the terror of if any beast even touches this mountain, it will be killed. What's inspired me to, encouraged me to bring this text to you is, not to say we have two different lords, because my argument would be, there is one mediator, it's not my argument, it's what Paul says, there's one mediator between God and man, so who met with Moses on the mountain? The mediator between God and man. Coming in his stark holiness, as it were, to display The great difference between a holy God and sinful people. Gave him this law, and he wrote it on stone. By contrast, here is the same mediator, now in human form, calling his disciples up to listen to him as he sat and taught, and the teachers, as you may know, when they came to teach, after reading the law, probably standing, sat down. So what did the Lord Jesus teach them? Well, he taught them his sermon. What was it like? Let me give you a couple of statistics which will set it quite succinctly, I think. In these three chapters, there are 50 imperatives. You learned in your grammar early on that an imperative is a command. Using 30 different verbs, That's pretty much law, isn't it? It's pretty much directive. And we could go through this very quickly just to remind ourselves what was there. Because this is critical, I think, for us to understand why these Beatitudes are here in front of this. In chapter five, after the summary where Jesus says, don't think, and Ficks quoted this a few weeks ago as a New Testament reading, don't think I've come to destroy the law, I've come to fulfill it. And then after telling them they're the light of the world as his disciples, they're the salt of the earth, he then begins an explication of first the sixth commandment, don't kill, but also don't be angry sinfully. Then the seventh commandment, don't commit adultery, but also, even in your thoughts, dare to be pure. Then the third commandment, watch how you speak, period, particularly when you take the name of the Lord. And then finally, at the end of that chapter, he's correcting the application of a civil law about taking vengeance and justice personally, not your place. And finally, with that expression, which is so powerful, you're to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Got it? Chapter six. What is it? How can we summarize it? Doing our good deeds without showing. Show off. How to pray, including the Lord's Prayer. Where our values and treasure should be. The necessity of clear spiritual vision with dedication to serving only one master. Implicitly trusting God for everything, not worrying while seeking first the kingdom of God and everything else will follow. Obviously, I'm massively summarizing. In the seventh chapter, stark warnings all the way through, serious warnings. Judging other's faults especially with a plank in your eye. How can you see to correct someone else without clarifying your own vision? Being careful with what is holy. Asking, seeking, knocking in prayer, not just saying a prayer. Pursuing the Lord in prayer. The golden rule, do unto others as you would be done by. Two gates, two roads. Fruit proves the tree. Doing a father's will, not merely saying, Lord, Lord, is required to enter the kingdom of heaven. And finally, two houses, two foundations. A summary of this great sermon, the beginning of the teaching of Christ. Now, what do the Beatitudes then have to do with Jesus? with his disciples and with the law. That's a reflection tonight. And let me say a few clarifying things. First, they do not describe an unregenerate person regardless of their natural gifts and character. This is not talking about people who are naturally a poor spirit or whatever that means exactly, and we'll think about it, or meek. It's to disciples. And I'll try to argue this as we go through and try to defend that. Secondly, in my opinion, they describe how regenerate believers are to live and how they can measure the health of their spiritual heart where God's law is written. So that this is the fruit of that law in the heart. And so the Beatitudes function both as the prologue to the body of the sermon and its end result, which is the character of life intended for the Lord Jesus' disciples. Also, we see here the promised reward, the blessedness of entering the kingdom, beginning in this life and perfected in the life to come. But our focus tonight is on this view of the Beatitudes. Before any of these purposes of the Beatitudes, I would set before you that the Lord Jesus put them first to describe how he himself, the son of God, come to earth in human form was to be. This is his character. Therefore, he is our supreme example and model, whom we are to strive to follow, carrying our cross, reflecting his light, and seasoning our sphere, wherever that is, with salt, and seeking to be conformed to his image as expressed in these Beatitudes. And I think that may seem strange, because so often, and rightly so, These beatitudes, since they were expressed to disciples, was for them. And so we start with them. I'm inviting us to start with Christ and ask that you come along with me as we consider these beatitudes as to how they, in fact, flowered in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In case this startled you, consider Paul's record in Philippians 2 of our Lord's descent from eternal glory to a human body. Emptying himself, Paul says, by taking on the form of a bond slave. Further, humbling himself to become obedient to the point of death, death by shameful and wretched crucifixion. So from our Lord Jesus' own life of explicit obedience to all the Father's will, that will written in the Old Testament, and the specific will of the Father that directed our Savior all his earthly days, we learn the nature of the Beatitudes as prelude to the law, promise before requirement, and the Beatitudes as fruit of faithfully conforming ourselves to the law as our Lord himself demonstrated in order to obtain those blessings. This is going to be dense, folks. Dense. Concentrated. And I hope to send you home with your own self-assigned task to come back and look at the text again. Consider it in even a broader spectrum. So by carefully observing how these apply to our Lord, we will more clearly see how they apply to us. And the order I would like to take them is as I've reflected on this for as long as I remember when Pastor Fix asked me to preach, but from that moment and remembering 17 to 20 and saying I wanna deal with these beatitudes, I started reflecting on this. I'm going to present them in the order of where I think they are easier to think of Christ and harder. So we start with mourners. Was Christ a mourner? What did he mourn over? Not his own sin. He didn't sin. But he came into a world of sin. He came into a world cursed because of sin. The Lord Jesus was grieved at sin. We read this. The hardness of heart. He was ceaselessly misunderstood himself. Did that grieve him? Did he rejoice in being misunderstood? He wept over Jerusalem who misunderstood him and far worse. He wept at Lazarus' tomb and no doubt at other times. Read Psalm 88 and see if it doesn't describe the abandonment of Christ on the cross finally. Read Lamentations 3, I am the man. You have four chapters of Lamentations 2, 1, 2, 4, 5, third person, first person, chapter 3, so striking. Isaiah 53, 3, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. How was he comforted? We'll consider that below. Jesus Christ was a mourner. Meek will inherit the earth. Meekness is not fearfulness or timidity. Again, we're not talking about natural characteristics or the negative. It is rather, for example, how Moses is described in Numbers 12.3 in the face, context of Numbers 12, of grievous rebellion by his siblings, by Miriam and Aaron, and by so many in Israel. The meekest man in the world. How often do we see Moses in Exodus falling on his face and in Numbers before the Lord? What am I gonna do with these people? You've socked me with these people. Grief. It is how the Lord Jesus, meekness, described himself at the end of Matthew 11. It's the same word that's used here. I am meek, lowly. It's translated often. It is the way Zechariah described the king who would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. It's the Lord Jesus Christ from the cross saying, Father, forgive them. Other attributes of our Savior are in those words, but certainly meekness before what they were doing to him. Merciful meekness. What's his reward? Inheriting the earth. Which earth? This one? Well, earth is the Lord's and everything in it, so is God, certainly. No. New heaven, new earth, which the Lord Jesus Christ himself bought with his life and death. It is the place I am preparing for you." So glorious to realize that. He was definitely meek. He will inherit everything. Pure in heart, was Christ pure in heart? Like no other person of the human nature in history. Lord Jesus alone truly fulfill the blessedness here. Consider those words from Psalm 119. By the way, I would encourage you just utterly in passing, you read Psalm 119 again, except for about three verses, you could read it as the tutelage of Christ, his love for the law, his love for that scripture. Not the last verse, because he hadn't gone astray like a lost sheep. But these verses apply to him. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. Absolutely true of our Savior. Son of God came from his Father's presence. saw his father from eternity. He lived in it in a way we cannot describe. I can imagine something never ending. I cannot imagine something without a beginning. Just think about that sometime if you want a real mind. Everything we know started and we're told something will not end. That's okay. No beginning, always seeing his father. Not that anyone has seen the father, he said in John 6, except he who is from God. He has seen the father. The Lord Jesus longed to return to his father and present his glorified humanity to his father in heaven, which he did. He saw God. Peacemakers. What is their blessedness? They will be called sons of God. Now, our first question here in this beatitude regarding our Lord Jesus is what kind of peace? The Lord Jesus came to reconcile people to God because there's no peace between the unbeliever and God. They're under his wrath and he's at war with them, even though he's kind to them and good to them. and loves them as his creatures. So without that reconciliation, there can never be lasting peace between heaven and earth. So when his suffering as our substitute, the Lord Jesus created vertical peace, between God and reconciled humans, but in so doing, he also created a horizontal piece of believers with believers. Listen to Ephesians 2. I love this passage. Magnificent. And it's talking about Jews and Gentiles, but it belongs to all races, all cultures. who become believers. He himself, Christ, is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, wherever there's division. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Christ is the consummate peacemaker. My peace, I leave with you. Peace that surpasses all understanding. His reward shall be called the sons of God. Wasn't he already the son of God? Yes. Listen to Romans 1.4. It's a striking verse to reflect on. By his resurrection, according to the spirit of holiness, he, Christ, was declared son of God with power, Christ Jesus our Lord. The resurrection was a declaration of the man Christ Jesus as also the son of God. And perhaps Hebrews 2 adds to that, for it was fitting that he, by whom and for whom all things exist, the father, in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation, Christ, perfect through suffering. And so exonerated, back to the right hand of the father and In his exaltation, he will bring many sons and daughters to glory with him. We're focusing on Jesus tonight. Poor in spirit. First of all, what does this mean? It's the only place that I've found in the whole Bible that uses this phrase, poor in spirit. We don't have a rich in spirit somewhere as an opposite, for example. We have John the Baptist described as becoming strong in spirit during the years he was in the wilderness. And in Luke 6, Luke's version of these beatitudes doesn't even have in spirit. It just says, blessed are the poor. And the word poor here most often refers to poverty of goods, of money. And it refers to those, for example, to whom Jesus told John's disciples when they came to him, wondering from John if he was the real Messiah. Jesus said about the poor, the gospel is preached to them as a sign that Messiah is here. So this is a kind of poverty of spirit. What is this? Well, John, who was strong in spirit, was fiery in his preaching. Whereas the Lord Jesus, in his preaching, was described as someone who would not quench a smoldering wick or snap off a bruised reed. He was gentle. And perhaps 2 Corinthians 8 describes it best. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet for our sakes he became poor. And this he became poor is the only place where this word appears in the New Testament. It literally means he became, or as often used in context, he became a beggar. It's a massive transition from a state of wealth and position to destitution. He became poor. Why? So that we might be made rich by his impoverishment. where the Lord Jesus was mighty, was in his Holy Spirit-empowered words and deeds on behalf of others, not himself, the spotless, helpless lamb who all his life was being fitted for death as an atoning sacrifice, poor in spirit. And what's the reward? Kingdom of Heaven, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Our Lord Jesus will return to earth to consummate in unimaginable glorious physical terms his everlasting kingdom with all the holy angels and gather his elect from the four corners of the earth forever. Hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. First question here is what kind of righteousness? What are we talking about here? Or justice, because the word can mean both, righteousness or justice. Something gained by faith or works done in righteousness. It seems clearly to be the latter, more related to justice and doing works of righteousness about Jesus. Listen to him in John 6, my meat, my food, is to do the will of my father who sent me." And speaking of and doing his father's will, righteous acts and words, our Lord was persecuted on account of his righteousness. As the last beatitude states, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for the evidence of that righteousness in their lives. And we hear this in the preparation for it in Isaiah 42. And let me read these verses. And notice the word justice. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break. A faintly burning wick he will not quench. he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. When John saw Jesus coming to be baptized, what did he say? You should baptize me. What did Jesus say? No, permit it now. Why? for us to fulfill all righteousness, all that was written that needs to be completed for the righteousness that God requires. The Lord Jesus served only one master, chose the narrow gate and trod the hard way, bore magnificent fruit by his person and work. He laid the bedrock foundation on which no construction could be destroyed. executing righteousness. And, of course, we'll take a parenthesis from our Lord Jesus to say that's our righteousness and standing before God, our declaration of righteousness because he was righteous, imputed to us. But we're on talking about Jesus tonight. Let's go back to him. How was he satisfied? Well, everywhere in the New Testament, this word, satisfied, has to do with satisfying hunger. Just look it up. You can chase it around. You'll see that. What's the hunger for? And how is it satisfied? If it's a desire for justice and to see righteousness triumph, then listen to Isaiah 53.11. As a result of the anguish of his soul, He will see and be satisfied. Resurrected, given all power in heaven and earth, ascended, accepted, sending out the Spirit in an entirely new degree, interceding and coming again to set up the new heavens and the new earth, our Savior is satisfied with His work. And His Father was satisfied with it when He returned. We should be satisfied with the work of Christ. Well, 2 Peter 3 says, so that according to his promise, promise always before everything else, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which what dwells? Righteousness. You know, people cry for justice and understandably as they understand it. There's coming a day when there will be absolute justice. God himself will vindicate his son and all his people and his son publicly before every eye. Praise God. But finally, merciful. And the merciful will obtain mercy. I don't think we have to argue or present anything more than just to say The entire life of the Lord Jesus Christ was an example of showing mercy. That's what he came for. Everywhere. That's what exactly Matthew's been describing him doing before he sat down to give this sermon. But what of this reward? Did Jesus receive mercy? Let's think about this. Not if we only think of mercy as given to one because of their personal sin. He had no personal sin to receive mercy for. But how else could he receive mercy, we might ask? Well, consider with me this text. For us, God made him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. When was this? When hanging from the cross, the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable wrath of God against human sin was poured out on our Lord's body and soul. Supremely acknowledged when our Savior screamed out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What hope? All his earthly life was a preparation for that, for his hour, when it had fully come. God made him to be sin. Well, when did he receive mercy? After calling out, it is finished, signaling his substitutionary work in the place of all the elect was complete, he said the last words, Father, not God. into your hands I commit my spirit. From his Father he received mercy, and the Holy Spirit raised our Savior from the dead as man, vindicating and honoring the Lord Jesus' work and purchasing the pardon and a perfect, justifying righteousness for all those whom the Father had given him. All this was just as predicted. Listen to Psalm 9. Be gracious to me, O Lord, which in the King James and some other versions say, have mercy on me. See my affliction from those who hate me. Oh, you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises. That in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation. And so it did. So he received that mercy. That prayer was heard. And Hebrews 2, therefore, he, Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. He received mercy so he could be a merciful high priest to make propitiation for the sins of the people, full of mercy before his final sufferings after them so he continues to pour out his mercy on the undeserved. So we have traversed these Beatitudes with our eye on the Lord Jesus Christ. My admonition to you tonight is first this, memorize these Beatitudes. There are only eight, and eight has two parts. The first part of eight is like the other seven in the third person, blessed are they. The second part of eight is second person. Blessed are you. And that's when we begin to turn from him to us in specific ways. And strikingly, when it's talking about suffering. These are the prelude to Christ's law. And as I said, the fruit of keeping it. Memorize them. Say them once a week. It won't hurt you. You won't be thought of by yourself or others, I trust, as saying the rosary or something else. These are precious words. And the reason we focused on Christ tonight, folks, is if they characterized him and he is our example, that's where we start. We don't start with us. We start with God. This is a God-centered world. It's a God-shaped world. We who know that, at least somewhere in our minds, need to put it in the front. And this is a way to do it. How is the word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation? Catechism asks the question. We are to hide it in our heart. Meditate first, after you've memorized them, on how our Savior fulfilled them as we've begun to consider. And as an addition to that, as you read the Gospels from now on, look for how these are fulfilled in the words and deeds of the Lord Jesus. You'll see them everywhere. You'll see it, you can't miss it. Making peace, taking terrible rebukes, suffering, being poor in spirit because He knew he was going to be the owner, king of this kingdom. And then pray for grace and strength to imitate him in the attitudes. They are not the totality of the scriptures, but they contain a massive amount of that which characterizes the godly. And if you do this, pray for grace and strength to imitate him, You will joyfully seek to know and obey all he requires in his law. Then you can read this sermon. You can read it as joy. I don't want to be angry wrongly. I don't want to think filthy things. I don't want to speak carelessly about God. I don't want to take vengeance. That's God's place. I want to show mercy to people. And so on, right on through the sermon. And as our pastor is bringing us through the Deuteronomic structure of it, We have our Lord Jesus' own example. So I trust this has been helpful to encourage you to keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus everywhere. Looking unto Jesus really means looking away unto him, looking off something else, looking away to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy that was set before him, not in the process, and the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. All glory and praise now and forevermore be to our great Savior and the way he kept what he asks us to do and will enable us to do the same. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, There is only one true father, only one true heaven. Because you were there with the son at your right hand, now clothed in our nature, glorified, interceding for us in a way we cannot imagine. By the power of his divinity, can know the thoughts, the words, the deeds, and the needs of every single one of his precious saints. whom he loves and has purchased, you have the power through your spirit to enable us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. So we thank you for this evening and this privilege to have been able to spend a few moments thinking about him again in these words. Write them on our hearts and help us to practice them in our lives so that our light may shine before men and they may see our good works. By our words, as well, glorify our Father, you, our Father, who is in heaven. Hear us, we pray for Christ's sake.