and your copy of God's Word to the Gospel of Matthew. walk through Matthew, and we've come now to chapter 5, which is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the first of five major discourses that we find in the Gospel of Matthew, and it is the most famous of His discourses. In fact, the Sermon on the Mount, which is chapters 5, 6, and 7, is the most well-known sermon anywhere throughout the history of mankind. It is easily the most familiar and most beloved sermon. And today, as we start here in chapter 5, we're going to deal with the most well-known part of the most well-known sermon, which is the Beatitudes. And we're not going to be looking at all of the Beatitudes at once. We'll just examine the first three. So, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 5. So, Matthew chapter 5, let's start in verse 1. Seeing the crowds, 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." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. May He bless it to our hearing, especially as it's preached to us this morning. Well, people of God, you don't need me to tell you that over the last few weeks it has become abundantly clear, if not just to us, but indeed to the whole of the world, that we live in a truly broken world. We have seen horrific things, young people being killed on their commute home. political figures like Charlie Kirk being assassinated simply because he was doing actually what Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount, which was loving his enemies and engaging with them. And many, many other things that we have been seeing of late that reminds us that this world is broken, that this world is incapable of fixing itself. And many people have looked and said, we've had enough, we've had enough of the chaos in the streets. and the broken families, and government overreach, and all these other things that we can look at and we can complain about and we can see that are truly wrong with the society and the world in which we live. And many people, especially even Christians, are saying, how do we respond to these events? What should we do? They keep saying that the assassination of Charlie Kirk is a turning point, a play on words that his political organization was called turning point. But I do think that certainly is true. There does seem to be a response of people saying, no more. And as we talked about last week, the question for us as believers then is, how do we respond? Do we respond as the world responds, or is there some other way? in which Jesus calls us to engage. The Sermon on the Mount, as we've said, is ultimately about kingdom life. And it's directed to us, those who are the followers of Jesus. In fact, you'll notice that in verse 1, it says that the one whom Jesus is addressing is His disciples. He was, in the Sermon on the Mount, not addressing the crowds. It is His disciples, those who are committed to following Him. That is, He is speaking to us. And what he lays out in the Sermon on the Mount is what is life like for those who are in the kingdom? The King has come to tell us what He expects of us and how we are to behave, and it is different from the way the world calls us to live, the way the world calls us to react to the things that we have seen. And over the next several weeks as we unpack the Sermon on the Mount, you will see the many demands that Jesus makes of His people. He's laying out here the conduct of His disciples, how they are to behave. However, what's really interesting is that He starts with the Beatitudes which is where He tells us not so much how we are to behave, He will get to that, but He first tells us who we are. Who are these disciples of the King who are in His kingdom? Or to put it another way, before He describes the conduct of the disciple, He first describes the character of the disciple in the Beatitudes. So as we look at it, what we're going to be seeing is what are we supposed to be like as followers of Jesus? Who are we? Later he'll tell us how we are to behave, but he starts by telling us who we are. So as we look at these first three Beatitudes, we're going to see three things. We're going to see that we're blessed by God. that we are broken before God and that we are blessed through Jesus. We're going to see those three things, blessed by God, broken before God, and blessed through Jesus. So, let's take the first of these points, blessed by God. And what I want to do here is I want us to give a brief overview of all the Beatitudes, not just these three, but these are things that are going to apply to all those that we have before us that we're going to be looking. And the first thing to notice is that there's a pattern to all of them, right? Blessed are the… for they shall… right? That's the pattern we see. The first half, blessed are they who, and that tells us something about who we are, and then for they shall, and then it tells us something about how we are blessed. So, if you look at that first half, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek." That's describing what we are, what we are in the eyes of God. It is not describing what we do. That comes later. So, these are descriptions of us, the character of the disciple, not demands that are made. Now, another thing that's important to point out is that all eight of these, blessed are, boom, boom, boom, Each one of these is not a separate type of disciple. In other words, it's a unified whole. These are all descriptions of what every follower of Jesus is like. So, it's not that some followers of Jesus are poor in spirit, while others mourn, while others are meek, while others hunger and thirst for righteousness. No, these are unified. They are descriptions of each and every disciple. They're just different aspects. of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Another thing to notice about these descriptions of who we are is that they're not physical descriptions, they're spiritual. So when He says that we are poor, He's not talking about material poverty, but we are poor in spirit. And we haven't gotten to this one, but in verse 6 when He says that we are those who hunger and thirst, it's not physical hunger, we hunger and thirst for righteousness. So, what we have here is a spiritual description of what a disciple is like, a spiritual description of… or a description of our spiritual character as followers of Jesus. That's what we see in the first half of all these Beatitudes. And when it says, blessed are the, boom, it tells us something about us spiritually. And then the second half, it says, for they shall, and then it describes the blessing that we receive. That makes sense? The word beatitude is just a Latin word for blessing. Now, I just want to say something about what it means when you say blessed. To be blessed does not mean happy. I've seen some translations that translate this as, happy are those. But happiness is a feeling. Happiness is subjective. Happiness comes and goes. There are many who are blessed who do not feel happy. After all, he even speaks about mourning and grieving. When Jesus is saying in the second half of each beatitude, it's not a subjective feeling. He's making an objective statement about who we are. He's stating something about us, a concrete fact, something that we receive. That's what it means to be blessed. It's not a feeling. Well, what exactly does it mean? Well, in the Bible, one of the things that we see is that to be blessed is always the opposite, surprise, to be cursed. So, for example, in Genesis chapter 12, when God is speaking to Abraham, he says in verse 2, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. To be blessed in scripture means that you are not cursed by God. And when we look at its use, it always shows that it means to be in fellowship with God, to have a right relationship with God, to enjoy God as He should be enjoyed. So when we see, blessed are those, and then it tells us something about that blessing, it's describing something about that relationship that we have with God. And it tells us that our relationship with God is, in fact, a blessing. And just like the first half of every beatitude, the second half is also something that applies to every believer. There aren't some believers who inherit the earth. There aren't some believers who then see God, but not the same. It's something that describes all of us. So those are, again, just some general facts that we can say about all the Beatitudes. And when we talk about the blessing, we might also ask, is it a present blessing or is it a future blessing? And the answer is it's actually both. These promises of blessing have both a present and a future fulfillment. Remember we talked about last week the already, not yet, the idea that the kingdom is already here. When Jesus came, He brought the kingdom with Him. The kingdom has arrived for God's people, but it is not yet here in all its fullness. That awaits when He returns. And when He returns, the kingdom and all the aspects of it will be maximized. And so, in the same way, these blessings have a present fulfillment, but they still have more yet to come. And as I said at the outset of the sermon as we jump into them, it's very significant that that is how Jesus begins His Sermon on the Mount, with His beatitudes. Before He starts laying out commands, imperatives, demands for us, and He will have those. He first lays out who we are and what we're going to see today. It's always in the context of grace. Now, why does that matter? Here's why it matters. Because He's going to be asking you to live in a certain way that is separate from the way the world expects you to live, perhaps even separate from the way that you want to live. He's going to put what almost seem to be impossible demands, but first He wants to let you know who you are and that what you are It happens because of His grace. Think of the Ten Commandments, right? If you turn to Exodus chapter 20, and you look at the Ten Commandments, and we know them, right? And it asks us that you have to have no other gods before me, you're not to make any images, you're not supposed to use the Lord's name in vain, and you're to honor the Sabbath day, or keep the Sabbath day, and remember it, keep it holy, and then you're to honor your father and your mother, and you should not kill, and you should not commit adultery, and you should not steal, you should not bear false witness, and you should not covet. All those commands are laid out in Exodus chapter 20, but do you remember what the prologue is? What God says before He lays those commandments on His people? Does He say, here you are, slaves in Egypt, and if you obey these commandments, if you live up to these commandments, then I will deliver you from Egypt, I will save you from oppression. No, that's not what it says. He gives the commandments to them on Sinai, after He's drawn them out from Egypt, after He has saved and delivered them, and He says, I am the God who has delivered you from slavery in Egypt. Therefore, this is how saved people behave. And that's exactly what's happening here in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is going to begin by telling us, He's going to be telling us, this is what you're to do. You're supposed to turn the other cheek when somebody slaps you on one side. You're supposed to love your enemies. All these things like, you know, this is nearly impossible for me to do. And he doesn't come and say, do that, and if you do that, then I'll save you. Instead, he comes to you and he says, this is who you are because of my grace. Therefore, this is how you behave. And that's so important on how you approach what we're going to be reading in the Sermon on the Mount, your ability to keep it. is only possible because you have been saved in grace, united to Jesus. With that, let's look at the next point and begin to look at these first three beatitudes. And we have that under the point broken before God, so that should tell you something about what it's going to show us. One of the interesting things about these eight beatitudes is that they are not in a random order. They're very specific. Back in the 4th century, the preacher John Chrysostom once said that they form, the Beatitudes form a golden chain. There's a sequence here. And the sequence, what it's doing is, yes, it's describing the character of the disciple, but it does so by demonstrating how grace works in your life as a follower of Jesus. And it goes from point to point. Just as you came to know Christ and you were drawn to him through a process, that process is actually unpacked here in the Beatitudes. So with that in mind, let's take a look at these first three, and what it's going to be describing is who we are and what we are before God. Look at the first one, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So let's take the first half, the description of our spiritual character. It says that we are poor. Now, that's not a physical poverty, as we've already said. It is a spiritual poverty, poor in spirit. And you see this all throughout the Old Testament, where the word poor is used not for a person who lacks worldly goods, but a person who is reliant upon God, who has nothing to offer to God, and so he looks to God for deliverance. So, for example, Psalm 34 verse 6, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. And it's exactly the same thing when here, when it says poor in spirit, it means that we are spiritually destitute. We are spiritually bankrupt. It means that we recognize that we have nothing to offer to God. We have no merit. We don't get to go to God and say, look God, look at how good I, look at all that I have done for you. Look at how I keep your commandments. Look how I treat other people. No, we recognize that we're sinners without any standing before God in and of our own strength and merit. Blessed are the poor in spirit." I like the way the New English Bible translated this. It wasn't a literal translation, but it really captured the flavor when it said, how blessed are those who know their need of God. When you're poor in spirit, you recognize, I have nothing to offer God. I can't go before Him and bargain with Him or barter with Him. I simply have to rest wholly upon His mercy. So if you are poor in spirit, you recognize your true condition, that you have no righteousness of your own, and when you're left with nothing, you can only hope in God. Reminds me of those wonderful words from that great hymn that we often sing, Rock of Ages, by A.M. Toplady. You remember these words. Maybe you'll repeat them with me. We'll say them slowly. He says, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to your cross I cling. naked come to you for dress, helpless look to you for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die." There's a man who is poor in spirit and recognizes he has nothing to offer and he is wholly dependent upon the mercy of God. And John Calvin, when he referred to this beatitude, said, he only who is reduced to nothing in himself and relies on the mercy of God is poor in spirit. Of course, that attitude of being poor in spirit, it's repugnant to the world. Remember, the world values self-reliance. The idea of self-reliance is a virtue in the eyes of the world. But Jesus says, if that's the attitude that you have, if you do not recognize your poverty of spirit, if you really do think that you can make it on your own, then you are spiritually blind. You are spiritually naked, and you're headed towards ruin. You remember what He said in Revelation 3, verse 17. He was speaking not to the world. He was speaking to the church, and He said, you say, I am rich. I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing, but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." Of course, he wasn't talking again about physical richness. He was talking about those who think that they have something to offer to God, and he says, you're so blind you don't even see it. You've got nothing. You're naked. You're helpless. You're poor. You're blind. You can't even see it. And I think it's little wonder why we see so little of God's blessing in our lives, and it's because we're so full of ourselves, and we think we are so rich, and that we can create our own blessing rather than saying the only hope I have is fully in God. So that's who we are to be as God's people, poor in spirit, recognizing we have nothing to offer. And then we see the second half of the Beatitude, and we see the blessing for those who are indeed. poor in spirit. He says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And it's interesting that the language, the way it's used here in the original language, this was written in Greek, is it literally says, to the poor in spirit, them and them alone belongs the kingdom of heaven. It's very emphatic. They only are the ones. to whom the King, Jesus, allows into His kingdom. And at first you say, well, that doesn't make any sense. How can those who have nothing to offer earn this wonderful blessing of being in the kingdom? And that's the whole point. You don't earn it at all. It's not a reward for what you've done. It's a free gift. It's not based on your merit. It's holy grace, unmerited favor. We have nothing to offer, so clearly it's not a reward. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, that wonderful wartime preacher in London during the Second World War, once wrote, I would say, or rather he preached this and then it's been written down. He said, I would say that there is no more perfect statement of the doctrine of justification by faith alone than this beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs and theirs only is the kingdom of heaven. Very well then, this is the foundation of everything else. And he says this summarizes the doctrine of justification by faith. And you know what that is? Justification is where God declares us to be righteous, not because we really are righteous and have our own merit, but because in His grace, He has taken our sin, our demerit, And he's given it to Jesus, who paid for it by his substitutionary death on the cross. And then he takes Jesus' merit, the fact that he was perfectly righteous and obeyed in every way, and he gives that record of righteousness to us, even though we don't deserve it. It's what the Puritans used to call the great exchange. And so even here in this very first beatitude, we already see clearly salvation by grace. God will bring you into his kingdom even when you have nothing to offer, and it's all by grace. The kingdom is given to the spiritually poor, not the spiritually rich, to those who recognize that they are feeble and not those who think themselves to be mighty. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees believed that they were rich, spiritually rich in merit. The zealots, another group at that time, thought that they could bring in the kingdom of God by physical force, by political might. And yet, to whom does Jesus say the kingdom belongs? To the tax collectors and to the prostitutes, those rejects of society who have absolutely nothing to offer. And nothing's changed. It's the same today. There are many people today, many who sit in churches, who believe that they are spiritually rich, that they're not as bad as those others. Oh, we mess up here and there, but we're not like fill-in-the-blank. There are many people today who believe that we will bring the kingdom into play through politics if we just get the right people in office. Some even saying that perhaps we'll bring it in by violence. But it is only those who recognize that they have nothing to offer to God, and therefore cry out to Him for mercy, only those will enter the kingdom by grace. Charles Spurgeon once said, the way to rise in the kingdom is to sink in ourselves. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The next beatitude in verse 4 is, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, that first half, those who mourn, He's not talking here about grieving over death or grieving over suffering. Again, it's a golden chain. It's looking at us in our different stages as we move along. This is another part, a second stage of that golden chain. It's one thing to acknowledge that you're poor in spirit, that you have nothing to offer God, but it's a completely other thing to then grieve over it and to mourn over it. The mourning here, therefore, refers to spiritual repentance. You've discovered that you're poor in spirit, that you have nothing to offer to God, and you grieve because of it. You mourn because of how broken you are, of how rebellious you have been. The problem we have in the church today simply is too little sorrow for our sin among God's people. We need true repentance. We need to be able to say, like Paul in Romans 7 24, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? But we don't feel that way. We need to be more like David Brainerd, that missionary to American Indians in the middle half of the 18th…or the middle part of the 18th century. In 18 October 1740, he wrote in his journal, In my morning devotions, my soul was exceedingly melted and bitterly mourned over my exceeding sinfulness and vileness." Do we see that about ourselves? Recognize we have nothing to offer and then grieve. Unfortunately, I don't think it happens enough. And what we often do find in ourselves is worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow. How do we distinguish between those? Worldly sorrow is the one that simply says, I'm sorry. And that comes at little cost. Some can't say that, but just say, I'm sorry, little cost. But godly sorrow means that you die to yourself, and that's a great cost. I want to do a little exercise with you. I want us to compare worldly sorrow to godly sorrow, and I want you to look at your own life and to look at your own sin and examine yourself on whether you truly do grieve for it in the way that Jesus says that we ought to. Let's compare worldly to godly sorrow, and I want you to look inside yourself and to weigh this. Worldly sorrow says, I am only sorry for what I do. Whereas godly sorrow says, I am sorry for what I am. Worldly sorrow says, I only confess after I've been called out for my sin. But godly sorrow says, I repent continually because of my sinful nature. I recognize it's always there. Worldly sorrow says, I focus on my behavior. Whereas godly sorrow says, I focus on my character. Worldly sorrow says, I want quick resolution to this matter so you'll get off my back. I don't want to deal with it. Whereas godly sorrow says, I want deeper insight into my sinful heart. So, please hang in there with me and let's unpack this together. Worldly sorrow says, I cannot believe that I'm like that. Let's not talk about this anymore. Whereas godly sorrow says, I can believe that I'm like that. Let's talk about it more so I can address it. Worldly sorrow says, I have an explanation for my behavior. Whereas godly sorrow says, I am sick of all my explanations. Worldly sorrow says, I'm sorry because I was found out. Whereas godly sorrow says, I'm so thankful that you brought this to my attention. Worldly sorrow says, I'm sorry you were offended, whereas godly sorrow says, I'm sorry my sinful heart is so offensive. Altogether, too often we have worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow, and that's why we don't see the blessing. There was a godly woman who had to wrestle with this some years ago, and she made a comment. She said, you know, there's a huge difference between confession and repentance. Much easier to confess, much harder to repent. She wrote, confession is a lot more comfortable than repentance. I can handle confession without too much of the Holy Spirit, but I cannot do repentance without the Holy Spirit working in my heart. Confessing is humbling, but repenting is death. And she's absolutely right. You are being called to die to yourself because you recognize the darkness and vileness of your heart and see that you have nothing to offer God and only in Him is there hope. And what happens when you do that? He gives us the blessing of the second half of verse 4, for they shall be comforted. What a wonderful thing. We mourn over our sin. We mourn over the brokenness and the blackness of our hearts. We mourn over the sins of others. We mourn over the bitter consequences of sin, both our sin and when we feel the effects of somebody else's sin. And we do mourn over those things. But we don't have to mourn forever, because all throughout the New Testament, the promise is that God is triumphing over evil, and the day will come where all this is set aside, and all those promises come to us through Jesus. You can take comfort in that promise right now. If you are going through the hardship of dealing with the consequences of your own sin, and they're heavy upon you, or you're dealing with the consequences of somebody else who has hurt you, and you're the one who carries it, Or perhaps you're dealing with the consequences of living in a fallen world as you deal with disease and illness and brokenness of your body that may not be due to somebody's moral failure, but is just part of living in a broken world. You can take comfort in the fact that one day this will be no more for God's people. And of course, the ultimate fulfillment of that is on that final day when sin will be no more, and our Lord has returned, and the new heavens and the new earth have been created. He's brought us into the fullness of His kingdom. And like Revelation 7, 17 says, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. God comforts us even now with that promise through Jesus because of what He's done. And that brings us to the last of these beatitudes for today in verse 5, "'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'" Again, the golden chain. When you recognize that you're poor in spirit and have nothing to offer God, then you mourn over the brokenness of your sin, and you realize, I am nothing. I have nothing better, nothing to offer God, and that makes me no better than this other person. And you can be meek and gentle to others because you recognize that they're broken sinners just like you, even when they hurt you. Even when they sin against you, you realize they're just like me and I'm just like them. Meek does not mean weak or effeminate or disadvantaged or powerless. Meek means being able to see yourself as you truly are before God. That's one of the toughest things. We don't want to see that. We want to pretend. But once you see yourself as you truly are before God as He sees you, then you can finally see yourself as you truly are before others. And that makes you meek, that makes you humble, that makes you gentle towards them. Again, it's comparatively easy to be honest with God about our sin, but it's so much more difficult when you allow others to see your own sin, or even more when you allow others to speak to you about your own sin. It's one thing like, you know, we just did a confession of sin a few moments ago. I can read a few words and say that to God, but to have you tell me that I'm a miserable sinner? That's a lot tougher. True meekness not only acknowledges our sin before God, but acknowledges it before others. Let's face it, people of God, there's not a single respectable person in this room, including the pastor. There isn't. So why do we pretend? Why do we hide it? Why do we constantly wear the mask? But when we recognize our poverty of spirit, and then we mourn over our sin, and we surrender our rights before God, and we submit to His will, that makes us gentle with other sinners. And it's this kind of gentleness, this kind of meekness that actually makes you strong, not weak, strong. Because it's a strength that's accompanied by genuine dependence upon God and His strength. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12.10, when I am weak, then I am strong. And what did he mean? When I recognize my own weakness and rely upon God, then I have real strength. It's a strength that's never used to domineer others, never used to assert yourself over others. It's a strength that is used to serve others. And when you have that kind of meekness, he says, then the blessing of the second half is you shall inherit the earth. Again, wholly unexpected, right? Because in our culture, we're told that it's those who are self-assertive, those who are tough, those who don't, you know, get in the front. You know, if you lead the way, if it's all about you, you will succeed in life. That's the message we have everywhere we turn to. Meek people get nowhere. They finish last. Everyone ignores them. Everyone tramples over them. That's why Jesus says, the first will be last and the last will be first. On that last day when you see those people that you consider to be nothing according to worldly standards, and they're in the front of the line, and all the people like me who think very highly of themselves are going to be all the way in the back. That's what the Scripture is telling us. It's a paradoxical blessing because, again, it's not given to you because of anything that you've done. It's not your merit, but it's given to you because of grace. We don't inherit the earth in this life. It comes when Jesus comes on that last day, the triumph of His last day. And He tells us then that everything, everything will be ours if we belong to Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 3, 21, Paul says, let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, and you are Christ's and Christ's gods. All these things are ours. And He gives it to us as a blessing, not because we deserve it. So, people of God, we look at all three of these, and they show us broken people who deserve nothing, who have nothing to offer God, and who are so broken by their sin that we are willing to admit it to others and to point to the only one who can give us what we need, which is Jesus. And that leads us to our last point, that in the end, we are blessed through Jesus. All the blessings that we've read come to us through Him. And they're all unexpected, I might even say even paradoxical to the way the world thinks. It's the poor who receive the kingdom. It's the meek who inherit the earth. It's a complete reversal of all the values of society. And the reason we can say that is because you don't receive them because you earn them. You don't receive them, the second half of the beatitude, because of what happens in the first half. It simply comes to us because of grace, and that grace comes to us through Jesus. One of the things you need to see in this passage is Jesus is not just the one who is preaching about these blessings, but He's the one who makes them so. He is the doer. He is the agent. He is the one who accomplishes and brings those blessings into effect. In verse 3, when we talk about the poor in spirit, Jesus is the one then who supplies our need because He Himself is perfectly rich in spirit. Paul says in Philippians 419, my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. How rich is He? He takes, as we said a moment ago, His fullness of His merit, and He gives it to you who don't deserve it, and He takes upon Himself fully your sin, and He bears the consequences of it so that you never will taste even one drop of God's wrath. That's why this king can then sit there and say, come into my kingdom. It's because of His grace and what He was willing to do for you. What about the second beatitude? Mourning. Was there ever anyone who wept more over the sins of others than Jesus? Anyone who wept more over the consequences of judgment and of death, and especially over those who would not receive Him? He mourned as He looked at Jerusalem and said, this is John's translation, you boneheads. You don't get it." And he cried because they were rejecting him. He didn't sit there and just start, oh, you guys. Okay, that's the way you want to be? Well, no. He wept over them. He wept when he saw what sin had done to his friend Lazarus. He saw him in the grave and he wept because he saw the consequences of our sin. And yet this Jesus who mourned over our sin didn't sit there and say, huh, but instead He came to comfort us. One of the most amazing stories that's only found in the Gospel of Luke, in Luke chapter 4 verse 16, Jesus goes into the synagogue in His hometown in Nazareth. It's the Sabbath day, they're in worship, they hand Him a scroll, He opens up to Isaiah 61, and He reads it. This is what He reads, "'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news.' To whom? To the poor. He has sent me to do what? To bind up the brokenhearted, to comfort all who mourn, and to 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. This prophecy looks forward to the coming of the Messiah and says He's going to comfort you in all your distress and in all your hurt, and some of you really need to hear that. And you don't need to wait in for the future because at the end, Jesus rolled up the scroll and Luke 4, He says, this passage is fulfilled in your hearing. Even as you've heard it, it's come to pass because the King has arrived, the King on a cross. That's how I comfort. because I forgive you of your sins, and because you're forgiven of your sins, I bring you into my kingdom, and I will make all things new, and I will erase all that suffering." That's how He comforts us. He is in the process even now of reversing all the effects of the fall of everything that you and I have done. You see, all these blessings come to us through Him. The last one then, briefly, meek. Jesus is the epitome of meekness, who never thought of himself more highly than he ought, who always relied on God. There was no arrogance in Him. He says in Matthew 11, 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, and it's, by the way, the same word in the Greek language as meek, for I am gentle, I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. In Isaiah 42, as it looks forward to the coming of the Messiah to Jesus, it says in verse 2, he will not shout or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. He's not coming up with all this bluster where he's going to show up and shout and make a lot of noise and point to himself and say, look at me. He comes only to do the quiet things, to care for you. You know what a bruised reed is? You know, I don't know if you've ever had reeds. You ever been in a place where you can see them growing in the water? And they can be very sturdy and actually very hard to break. But sometimes you'll see one of them, it says a bruised reed, one that has been bent. And that bend, boy, you know, you can just then take it and snap it. And He says, He's going to come to you. Some of you are bruised reeds in what you're dealing with now. because of your diseases and your conditions or your broken relationships in your marriage or because things that have happened to you in your job and your bruise, and he's saying he's not going to snap you in two, because that's what the world will do. And some of you are a smoldering wick. You're like a little candle, and you've got that little bit of a flame, and you're saying, I don't know how I'm sputtering. And he's not going to come and say, boom, He comes and He protects you, and He cares for you, and He provides for you. That's who this Jesus is. He looks weak, especially when He was on the cross, and yet the wonder of all that is that this man on the cross was the creator of all things, the Lord of the universe, and He is both powerful and meek. He is the lion and the lamb, and He's the one who comes and says that when you trust in Him, you will receive all the riches. All of the earth will be yours on that last day. This is who your Savior is. These Beatitudes simply describe who you are as a disciple, but it drives you back to Jesus. When you see yourself as you truly are, you have nowhere else to go but to Him. We look at them, and they show that we're broken sinners. When you recognize that you are poor in spirit and you have nothing to offer God, then if you are His, you will mourn for your sin. You will mourn over it, and that will drive you to Him. And you will recognize that you're no better than anyone else, and you will learn to be gentle with other people as you mimic His meekness. And all these things drive you to look to Jesus, to His grace. And all this is because of that grace. It's all because of Jesus alone. He makes it possible. Truly people of God, we are blessed. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, how thankful we are that we are the blessed people. The world doesn't think so. The world likes to make fun of us, mock us, trample over us, and do many things, and yet ours is the kingdom. Ours will be all the earth. Ours is even the comfort now, not because we deserve it, O God, but because Jesus Christ deserves it. And so we give you great thanks for Him, He who is the King of the kingdom, the Lord over all creation, Lord of our hearts. And we thank you that He came to comfort, to not break us in two, to not snuff us out. but that He came to make us something that we are not, to take ugly and broken people and make us beautiful once again. Sometimes it seems impossible, it seems certainly to go against what we see in the world, but with eyes of faith we are able to see and to trust that Jesus is in fact doing that. Father, there are folks here, however, who are going through suffering and through hurt, through heartache, through distress, where perhaps it becomes very, very hard to see that your Son Jesus is for them and not against them. And we pray that the things that we have seen and read today would remind us once again that He is so much for us that He gave His life. And if He was willing to do that, how much more will He not, as Paul himself says in Romans 8, be willing to give us all other things? Help us to learn to trust. Comfort us in our distress.