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We'll read verses 1-12. Last
week we went through verse 6 with the Beatitudes. This week we'll
finish. Let me read all of verses 1-12
of Matthew 5. Please hear the Word of God.
And seeing the multitudes, he 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 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 award in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you. This is the Word of God. May
God, by His Spirit, teach us and convict us according to His
will. Let me pray. Dear Father, Your Word says that
Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Lord,
by Your Word, You redeem those who are sinners, and those who
are Christians, You make more like Christ. May that be the
case today, Lord, as the Word of God is preached. Please take
it by Your Spirit. and apply it as you would will
for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name we pray these
things. Amen. Last week, if you were here,
we began a two-part study on the Beatitude, which is the beginning
of the Sermon on the Mount. We had a little bit of a context
last week that the first four chapters of the Gospel of Matthew
make the case of Jesus' identity as the long-awaited Messiah and
King the Savior sent from God to save His people to Himself.
We said near the end of Matthew 5 that there's a transition of
focusing on Jesus' identity to His authority as Messiah King. It's in verse 17 of Matthew 4
that we read, From that time on, Jesus began to preach and
to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then
in Matthew's Gospel, which really translate to the first eight
or nine chapters or so of Mark's gospel, which the Greater Boston
Reformed Baptist Church, the Greater Boston Reformed Baptist
Fellowship is going through. For the next 12 chapters of Matthew's
gospel, Jesus largely shows his authority as Messiah and King
by his authoritative teaching and his healing and his deeds.
We see then that the Sermon on the Mount is the beginning of
this authoritative teaching of Jesus as the Messiah of King
in chapter 5. And so in chapter 4 of Matthew,
Jesus already declared that the kingdom of heaven is near because
the King is here. And then starting in chapter
5, we have the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches with
authority as King. And he describes the character
and the righteousness of the King and his kingdom in the Sermon
on the Mount. and what is necessary for one to enter to become a
citizen of the kingdom, and what must be the character and righteousness
of the citizens of his kingdom. That's the Sermon on the Mount.
And then the Beatitudes at the very beginning of the Sermon
on the Mount are the key that unlocks the door to understanding
and applying the Sermon on the Mount. With the Beatitudes, which
we just read, Jesus beautifully summarizes the entire sermon
in his opening 10 verses. He explains the powerful truth
that in order to live as a citizen in Christ's kingdom, we must
allow Christ to cleanse and recreate our inner life first by the power
of the kingdom, which Po preached on a few weeks ago, the spirit
of God. And only then we are able to enter into his kingdom
according to his character and his righteousness, and then to
live righteously in his kingdom, counter to the unrighteous world
in which we live. We said last week, that the characteristics
described in the Beatitudes are to be the constant qualities
in every Christian's life. And it's as a result of Christ's
saving and sanctifying work in us. We said the first four Beatitudes,
which were covered last week, describe the inner qualities
of the Christian. But the last four Beatitudes, which we'll
cover this week, describe the resulting outer qualities of
the Christian. The first four Beatitudes focus
on the Christian's relationship with God, The last four Beatitudes
focus on a relationship with our fellow man. And the first
four Beatitudes show that by grace, this is how one enters
into the kingdom. He acknowledges his sinfulness.
He mourns over it. He meekly bows before God, hungering
and thirsting after his righteousness. That's the entrance by grace
into the kingdom of Christ. With these last four, verses
7-12, we'll see the outward result of the inward change of Christ
in our life. And so, in your bulletin, there
is an outline. It really is an outline for those
who are creatively challenged. It's not a very exciting outline,
but you see the outline that we'll go through today. First,
we'll briefly review last week's four beginning Beatitudes. And if you were here last week,
then Try to pay attention. It won't be new to you, but we'll
briefly go through the first four beatitudes. Then we'll focus
on the last four beatitudes in verses 7-12. And then we'll try
to close by summarizing all eight and closing with how Christ fulfills
those things. So briefly, and I'll try to do
it briefly. Briefly, the first four beatitudes, focusing on
the inner qualities of the Christian and our relationship to God in
verses 3-6. Remember last week, We said there's a progression.
I think it's a wonderful progression. It really is the gospel. There's
a progression from being poor in spirit, to being in mourning
over sin, to meekness, and then hungering and thirsting after
righteousness. And we said that was the only way to enter into
Christ's kingdom. But these are also characteristics
of how a Christian in Christ's kingdom continues to live. So
the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Who is the one who's poor in
spirit? He's the one who recognizes his spiritual bankruptcy before
God. He's a sinner unable to save himself. He's a spiritual
beggar totally hopeless before and dependent upon God and God's
mercy. And only he can enter into the
kingdom of heaven. The recognition of one's sin
is the first and most important step. And once someone becomes
a Christian, he continues to recognize his personal spiritual
poverty He can do all things through Christ, yes, but he can
do nothing apart from Christ. So the second step, blessed are
those who mourn for they shall be comforted. The one who recognizes
his spiritual bankruptcy before God, he then mourns over his
sin. And it's only he who knows the
comfort of God's forgiveness and cleansing. And then the Christian
who comes into the kingdom of Christ in this way, he will continue
to mourn over his sin. He still has sin he has to deal
with before God, not for salvation's sake, but in his relationship.
And he mourns over others' sins and the results of sin. And he's
a Christian who mourns with his brother or his neighbor to provide
comfort for them when they're in sin. The third step is blessed
are the meek. for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the meek, the humble, for they shall inherit the earth.
And so the progress is this. One who recognizes his sinfulness
and mourns before God over his sin, he turns then to God in
humility, in meekness, apprehending the mercy of God in Christ. And
only he is the one who can inherit the earth. That means he has
the eternal spiritual blessing and reward of the kingdom that
Christ provides. The Christian will continue in
meekness and humility. It's not just part of his salvation.
He will continue in meekness and humility because humility
and meekness is one of the defining characteristics of the Christian.
Sometimes we forget this, but one thing that marks a Christian
apart from his previous life, the natural man versus the one
who's been born again, is there's a humility there, just like with
our Savior who took on flesh to save us. I think related to
that as well is from humility comes service. Defining characteristic
of the Christian is humility that results in service. We'll
see that later with the Beatitudes. And also recognize what's the
beginning of every verse in the Beatitudes? Blessed. That means
there's a happiness, but there's an inner joy that is there. It's
not just from circumstance. So as we're accumulating characteristics
of the Christian, he's joyful. Doesn't mean he's always smiling,
but he's joyful. There's an internal joy and a humility and a service
that results. These are things that a Christian
continues in, striving for humility before God and man, with Christ
as his example. As you think about the entire
Sermon on the Mount, I hope for some of you, you'll actually
be motivated to read the rest of the Sermon on the Mount at
some point in time, but later we'll see that Jesus will say,
this is the person then who's able to turn the other cheek
and able to walk the extra mile when he's been redeemed and now
he's humbled before his God and his brother. and his fellow man. Then the fourth beatitude follows,
blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be filled. The one who recognizes his sinfulness
and mourns before God over it, he turns to God in humility,
and then he hungers and thirsts after Christ's righteousness
in repentance and faith. You see how the gospel is really
outlined in these first four beatitudes. This righteousness
that spoke about in this fourth beatitude is the righteousness
that's required by God. We cannot stand before God without
perfect righteousness. We long to have our sins forgiven.
We need that, but we need the righteousness of Christ imputed
to us. Our catechism, our Baptist catechism,
and I can sing this, but I'm trying not to. Justification
is an act of God's free grace wherein He pardoneth all our
sins and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness
of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone." Justification
means that Christ has fulfilled the moral law of God perfectly
in His perfect life, and He's fulfilled the penalty that we
deserve by breaking that law in His perfect death, burial,
and resurrection. And therefore, the sinner who comes in repentance
and faith before Christ, he exchanges his sin for Christ's righteousness. Our sin is imputed to Him. He
suffers for it fully. And He imputes His righteousness
to us so we can appear before God without sin and with perfect
righteousness. But the righteousness of Christ,
it's only He who is filled in this fourth beatitude. It's only
He who is filled, filled by Christ Himself and His righteousness
which is given to satisfy fully all of His needs. And the Christian
then will continue to strive to know Christ and His righteousness
more and more, continually seeking to know and to make Christ known,
not content with anything else. And in the Sermon on the Mount,
Christ says, this is the one who is able to seek first the
Kingdom of God and His righteousness. That was mostly a review of the
first four Beatitudes. So those who were here last week,
you can wake up now. or if you're not here last week, maybe you're
still with me. But now we can move on to the second four Beatitudes
in verses 7-12. And now there's still a flow,
I think, in these second four. They're not just random. They
go together. There's a progression from mercy to purity to peacemaking
and to persecution. And now it's not merely how one
comes into the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, this is the response, the
result of one who by grace has entered into the Kingdom of Heaven.
These are outward qualities and characteristics of a Christian
that will flow from Christ because of this. And so the first of
these second four beatitudes that focus on the outer results
of the inner change, blessed are the merciful for they shall
obtain mercy. Blessed are the merciful for
they shall obtain mercy. And doesn't it follow, believer,
that the spiritually bankrupt beggar which if you are a Christian,
that's who you are. The spiritually bankrupt beggar
who mourns for his sin in humility before God and is then filled
with the righteousness of Christ by the infinite mercy of God. Doesn't it make sense that he
would be merciful to others, knowing that others need this
mercy just as he did and just as he continues to need God's
mercy. So Jesus says, blessed are the
merciful. The idea of mercy here is not just pity or sympathy,
but this is characterized by a genuine compassion that does
something. It's compassion with feet, if
you will. From this humility, there arises
a desire to serve others, being merciful to them. It's a compassion
with a pure, unselfish motive that reaches out to help the
one who has a need. It's not just being a hearer
of The word, so to speak, it's being a doer of it. It's mercy
that meets a need, not just feeling it. It meets a physical need
by giving food to the hungry when possible, money to the poor,
clothes to the naked, and love to the hurting. In James 2, James
tells us if a brother is naked and destitute of daily food,
and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and
filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for
the body." What does that profit? He says that faith is a dead
faith. The mercy that we have from Christ
then becomes a mercy that is given to meet physical needs.
It's also to meet a spiritual need. Pitying the condition of
lost souls. We said last week that David
wept over those who would not keep the law. Paul wept for those
who would not come to Christ. Stephen, when he was being stoned,
Those who even stoned him would be forgiven. It's pitying the
condition of lost souls because we remember what it's like to
be a lost soul. And then that leads to prodding
the lost one to recognize his sins so he can know God's mercy.
And then praying for that lost soul and then preaching the gospel
to him. And you see there's an alliteration of this merciful
giving of pitying and prodding and praying for and preaching
the gospel to the lost The greatest way that we can be merciful to
others is doing this with the gospel of Christ. Mercy shows
sympathy for a mistake, compassion when offended, and it confronts
sin that others might come to know God's mercy, and that's
not easy. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, this is the person
who's able to love his neighbor and even his enemy for mercy's
sake. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. God is a God of mercy, and it's
His mercy that is being obtained. There's a glorious cycle of God's
mercy here, that God showers His mercy upon us through His
Son. We gratefully and humbly and
obediently then show mercy to others as God in Christ Jesus
has shown us mercy. And then God bestows upon us
even more mercy, pouring out blessing for our needs and even
withholding severe chastening for our sins out of mercy. And
we see in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus says, the one who
forgives others, God forgives. And later in Matthew chapter
18 with the unforgiving servant parable, Jesus teaches us that
mercy is withheld from those who withhold mercy. For the Christian,
if we have received from holy God unlimited mercy, that cancels
our unpayable debt of sin. We who had no righteousness but
were poor in spirit, mourning over our load of sin, in a beggarly,
helpless condition, wretched and doomed, meek before Almighty
God, hungry and thirsty for a righteousness that we did not and could not
attain. It surely follows that we would then be merciful to
others because of the great mercy of God bestowed upon us. What
a privilege it is that we would be merciful upon those sinners
who are just like us. our brother, or even our neighbor.
And nothing shows more clearly that we have been mercifully
forgiven than our readiness to have mercy upon others. Peter
tells the church in 1 Peter 2, you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you
may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are
now the people of God. who had not obtained mercy, but
now have obtained mercy. And for the one who's not a Christian,
this mercy, this mercy is the mercy you desperately need in
Christ Jesus, and we'd urge you to come to Him. So after blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, follows blessed
are the pure in heart, the sixth beatitude, blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God. One who is pure in heart
is one who has an inward purity by the spirit of God, which manifests
itself in an outward integrity and sincerity in one's life.
There's a flow from the inner purity that is through one who's
been born again, that manifests itself in an outward integrity
and sincerity. The word heart refers mostly
to the mind and the will, the personality of a person. The
scripture says, out of the heart springs the issues of life. Out
of the heart, the mouth speaks and the pure in heart has a right
attitude, pure motives, and a focus of a heart towards God first,
that's characterized by a single-mindedness and right relationships with
God and men, without hypocrisy, with public and private life
both transparent before all. And so being pure in heart cannot
possibly be without a heart purified by Christ. A new heart must be
given to be one who is pure in heart. In Ephesians chapter two,
the first 10 verses, a wonderful section of scripture, it begins
with saying that we are dead to God in our trespasses and
sins. We're dead to God in our trespasses
and sins. Those trespasses and sins, we're
dead, spiritually dead, in which we walked and we were enslaved
to, and we would suffer eternal wrath because of. We have no
hope in ourself. But God there's some wonderful
passages in the New Testament. It says but God Who's rich in
mercy? Because of his great love towards
us in Christ. He has made us alive He's raised us from the
dead spiritually together with Christ and by grace you're saved
by faith and Jesus declares in John chapter 3 we must be born
again We must be made alive to God with a new heart to be pure
in heart Ezekiel prophesied in Ezekiel 36 that God will replace
our heart of stone with a purified heart of flesh, which, energized
by the Spirit of God, the power of the kingdom, causes us to
walk in purity for God according to His law. The new heart given
only to those who, by grace and mercy of God, see their debt
of sin, repentantly mourn, and turn in meek faith to Christ,
hungering after righteousness. And the blood of Christ cleanses
such a heart and makes it pure able to beat for God. And in
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, this is the person who's
able to recognize that sin is from the heart. It's not merely
external. It comes from the heart. So that murder is hatred in the
heart, not actually just physical murder. And adultery is lust
from the heart, not just the act of physical adultery. So
blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. In Jesus'
day, the religious leaders of Jesus' day had created a legalistic
religion from misinterpretations of God's law and man-made traditions,
much like we have today. And so such legalism produced
a tremendous guilt and anxiety, and so the people were longing
for a way to get rid of their burden of sin, but they had no
way to do so, just like we find today. And Jesus then authoritatively
teaches that if you want to see God, which is the same thing
as if you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must
come to him for cleansing of the heart by Christ's perfect
blood and righteousness. Then you can continuously see
him and walk with him from now through eternity, living in his
presence, knowing him in a blessed and personal way as we spoke
of through Psalm 34 in our study hour. It's been said that a pure heart
cleanses the eye of the soul so that you can see God. A pure
heart that's given by the Spirit of God cleanses the eye of the
soul so that you can see God. And only the pure in heart can
see God. And so for the Christian, we
rejoice in God's mercy that He's purified our hearts by the blood
of Christ. God has given us a new heart
so that we can see Him and know Him forever. And so we are called
to love and to serve God with a pure, undivided heart. In the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will say, you cannot serve two masters.
You cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve God and anything
else. In the Psalms, we read that God is good and to such
as have a pure heart. And blessed are those who keep
his testimonies, who seek him with a whole heart, a pure heart,
an undivided heart. So with our brother as a Christian,
we're to obey the truth and sincerity to love one another fervently
with a pure heart, 1 Peter 1 says. For our neighbor, we're to love
our neighbor and our enemy in sincerity and purity and thought
and deed and prayerful hope that their hearts might be made pure
in Christ as well. With our own heart, we strive
to keep our hearts pure through obedience, through the word,
through prayer, through fellowship, to walk rightly with our God.
But for the non-Christian, This is the pure heart that you desperately
need as well in Christ Jesus. The pure heart only known through
the blood and righteousness of Christ Jesus and only through
repentance of sin and faith in Him, only then you can see God. There's only two left. The seventh
one, or the third one for today, blessed are the peacemakers.
for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God. God is a God of peace. In our church, our benediction
almost every Sunday starts out with, now may the God of peace
who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead in Hebrews 11.
God is a God of peace. And He sent His Son to bring
peace to men, to reconcile us to God through Christ. We who were once enemies of God
are justified and have peace with God in Christ Jesus. So
that now we are Christ's ambassadors and we are gladly called to bring
God's peace and reconciliation to a sin-darkened world with
sinners who are separated from God. We have to remember that
the peace that God brings is not a ceasefire. It's not just
no more fighting. Sometimes sadly in our marriages
that's what we call peace. Peace is actually getting rid
of the problem and reconciling and becoming friends again. That's
what biblical peace is. That's what God brings us with
the peace we have through Christ. And so we move from enemies of
God, who actually hate God, and deserve the wrath of God, to
be adopted as sons and daughters of God, to actually now be part
of the family of God, with God as our Father and Christ as our
Brother. This is the peace of God that
God brings. But this peace took an immense price by Christ Jesus
to bring it. There was much cost to pay through
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring this peace. So likewise,
peacemaking, and what Christ is speaking about in His Beatitude,
peacemaking for us is often a painful process as well. Unlike the worldly peace, which
is generally a compromise that temporarily covers over the problem,
this is a real peace that has to get to the heart of the problem.
And so biblical peacemaking doesn't just keep the peace, but it resolves
the conflict by truth. Jesus was the greatest peacemaker,
yet he never compromised truth, even though it led to great conflict
and great hurt for him. Ironically, he was beaten and
killed for trying to bring peace. And likewise, we must be willing
to take the blows and pay the price that's necessary to be
a peacemaker. Do you notice what the next beatitude
is? Blessed are those who are persecuted.
We'll get to that. It's interesting that being a
peacemaker can lead to that. What does this look like? Well,
it means consistently making peace with God by confessing
our sin and our disobedience in our own walk with God. It
also means looking to help others to make peace with God through
Christ. being an ambassador of Christ
to do so. It also means, thirdly, to strive to make peace with
all men and to bring them together. Hebrews 12.14, we're told, pursue
peace with all men and holiness without which you may not see
God. Romans 12.18 says, if possible,
as much as depends on you, Christian, live peaceably with all men.
In the church, From the Sermon on the Mount, we see that we're
to be willing to leave our gift at the altar and reconcile with
our brother first before we worship. That's being a peacemaker. In
the Sermon on the Mount, we see with the world, we need to be
quick to agree with our adversaries and make peace with even those
who are enemies against us. So blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God. Just like with the pure
in heart, with those who have mercy, it starts with a changed
heart and it works outward. It starts with the pure of heart
and the mercy given and being adopted as a son or a daughter
of God. Then you can be making peace. And so one cannot be adopted
as a son of God until he's been mercifully saved. He's been given
a new heart, the pure heart that we spoke of earlier, and has
therefore been brought from an enemy of God to have peace with
God, now be a son or a daughter of God the Father. Then he's
permanently adopted as a son with all the privileges and rights
of a son, as an heir to God and a co-heir with Christ. It's a
glorious thing. Those are the sons of God that
we're talking about. And then now given peace with
God and adopted as a son of God with God as his father, the Christian
is now able to live out a peacemaking life, which is characteristic
of a son of God. I like the way this fits together.
At first, it makes no sense. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God. Well, who is our Father?
When you're redeemed, God the Father is your Father. He's a
peacemaking God. And so when we're now sons of
God, we're called to be peacemakers. We're to reflect the character
of our Father, who is merciful, so we are merciful as well. Who
is a peacemaker, so we are sons of God. We are peacemakers as
well. We need to have a lifestyle of
peacemaking, just like we should have a lifestyle of showing mercy,
a lifestyle that's pure, that comes from the pure heart that
God has given us. We should have a lifestyle of peacemaking that
reflects that we are God's sons and daughters, reflecting the
character of peace of our Father and our Brother, our Savior,
Lord Jesus Christ, because of the peace that they have given
to us. And so for the Christian, we rejoice that by God's mercy,
we have peace with God through justification by faith, As a
result, ours is the kingdom of heaven. We can see God, and we're
adopted as sons of God. And so we are called to, from
God's peace within, to outwardly seek to make peace with God,
help others to make peace with God, and to seek to make peace
with all men. And for the non-Christian, this
is the peace with God that you desperately need, as well as
the mercy as well as a pure heart. This is the peace with God you
desperately need in Christ. This is the adoption and the
relationship you need to be able to call God Father. You desperately
need this. And the wonderful thing about
adoption is in earthly adoption, you might be adopted in a family,
but your nature doesn't change. You might begin to be like the
family you're adopted in, but still it doesn't change you from
the inside out. When you are adopted as God into His family,
The point is that you're then called in to be adopted as a
son or a daughter, to be made more and more like Christ until
you are made like him. In the end, you are changed from
the inside out. And this is what the non-Christian needs desperately.
And 2 Corinthians 5 says, as ambassadors for Christ, as though
God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf
to be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God
in Christ. We implore you to come to Christ.
The last beatitude of the eight begins in verse 10. I really
think verses 11 and 12 are an extension of verse 10. So the
last beatitude is, blessed are those who are persecuted for
righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Again, this seems odd. We have
blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed in all of these verses.
Happy, joyful. Remember it was blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those
who are meek. Blessed are those who are hungry.
That doesn't sound blessed to me. And now we have blessed are
those who are persecuted. Yay! Nobody said yay when I said
it. But it's blessed are those who
are persecuted. And we might be thinking, what? But yes, the
blessed man in Christ of the first seven will indeed find
himself to be persecuted in the eighth. And it's a blessing and
it should be expected. And it's interesting, Christ
is warning of this and preparing us for this from the very beginning
of the Sermon on the Mount, his manifesto of the King. The obedient
Christian living out the life of the kingdom according to the
Beatitudes and then the Sermon on the Mount that follows will
be persecuted. and he'll be persecuted for righteousness'
sake. That's the key thing. Not just
because you look funny, but you'll be persecuted for righteousness'
sake. 2 Timothy 3.12, in this verse that Paul writes to Timothy
in the church of Ephesus, he says, yes, which it means, listen
up, this is going to be true, yes, and all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It's part of the
life of the Christian. When he's following Christ, he
will suffer persecution. Here at Greater Boston Reformed
Baptist Fellowship, Poe was preaching not too long ago out of Mark
chapter eight. Christ says, I must go to Jerusalem
to be crucified, to be tortured, to be crucified, to be put to
death, but I'll rise again. And the disciples didn't like
that idea. But then he says, if you want to follow me, you
have to take up your cross and follow me. And then in the Transfiguration,
there's the Picture then, but you have the power of the kingdom
by the spirit of God himself then to enable you to do this
It falls back to here that you will be persecutors a Christian
Even though the Christian shows the world mercy Hopefully and
prayerfully and sincerity and peace those first three first
three Beatitudes of the day The Christian is naturally the world.
I'm sorry is naturally hostile to the righteousness of the Christian
that he has through Christ Righteousness angers the world because it shines
the light on its own unrighteousness. The sinner oftentimes is happy
in his condition and nobody's telling him anything different.
The Christian comes into his life and now he's jostled out
of his contentment. It's not okay to be in sin. In
their natural state, that makes them upset. And it then provides
persecution to come in response. In the Christian's example, of
living for Christ will remind the world of their own sin and
their need, and it's not necessarily a pleasant reaction. But Christ
did the same thing, and now we walk in the footsteps of Christ.
It says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do you see how we've
come back to the first beatitude? Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now it's blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. We've come full circle. Only the poor in spirit will
be given the righteousness needed to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. And because of that new heart and the righteousness given,
he will be persecuted, which then full circle is evidence
that he is indeed a member of the kingdom of heaven. Only the
one who is saved by the blood of Christ and made new on the
inside can live out the words of Christ Jesus. And it's strong
evidence for one's salvation when he's persecuted for Christ's
sake. We have verses 11 and 12. So we have another blessed. It
might seem kind of perplexing. What's this? I think what Jesus
is doing, He's expanding verse 10 into verses 11 and 12, which
ironically expands the Christian's joy all the more. Because you
notice it says blessed, and it says, Rejoice and be exceedingly
glad. 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 award
in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before
you." I think this is an extension. Of course, in the outline we
say, blessed are you with a question mark. Yes, blessed are you when
you're persecuted. And what it says, persecuted,
reviling, and say all kinds of evil against you, falsehood.
It has three aspects. The persecution, the word for
persecute means physical persecution. It means physical harassment
in the Greek. It's a true test of one's obedience
and devotion, his purity of heart. when you're then faced with physical
harassment for your faith. Then the reviling would be the
verbal insults. Viciously mocking is what reviling
means. Like was done to Christ during
His trial and His crucifixion. It's interesting. We're kind
of stupid in this when we say, sticks and stones will break
my bones, but words shall never hurt me. Is that really true?
Tell the truth. Oftentimes, as a father, What you regret the most would
be words that you may have said to your kids. And as a kid, those
are things you remember far more than maybe the physical discipline. In your marital relationship,
it's the words that are used that often it's hard to get rid
of. And you know as a Christian, you're forgiven and those things
are wiped clean and you can let go of those things. But when
we say sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall
never hurt me. Words are oftentimes more powerful and long-lasting
than other things. And so we need to remember that.
But then even here, blessed are you when they revile and persecute
you. These verbal insults can hurt deeply. The faithfulness
to Christ may cause even friends and loved ones to say things
that cut and burn us deeply. It's hard to forget, but we must
follow Christ and seek help and strength from Him. And then there
are false accusations. There are evil spoken against
you. There are false Those are the worst ones, because you can't
do anything about them. They'll put on a blog, they'll post on Facebook,
whatever they might be, and you can't do anything to defend yourself.
Oftentimes, Christians are like punching bags with their hands
tied behind their backs, because they're not going to retaliate.
But they have all the strength to deal with it. But we must
follow Christ. Why are we to be happy about
this? Why does it say, blessed are you? I think the key is because
it's persecution. It's not against me. It's persecution
against Christ. He says falsely for whose sake?
In verse 11, you're being persecuted falsely for my sake. That's where the joy comes from.
Satan and the world have a hatred against Jesus so much they ridiculed
and crucified him. And now he's risen and he's ascended
to heaven. And that hatred then grows and is taken out on his
ambassadors who are living for Christ. And Jesus said in John
15, when he's preparing the discipleship, the disciples, For the cross,
he says, if the world hates you, know that it hated me first.
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. It's a privilege
that we have. We have to be merciful because
of God's mercy. It's a privilege that we are
peacemakers because of God's peace in Christ. And yes, it's
a privilege to be persecuted because of Christ and His righteousness.
Obviously, we have to make sure the persecution is because of
Christ and His righteousness, not because of our being obnoxious.
or being wrong, but it's a persecution here because of Christ. And so
then, verse 12, we're to rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for
great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets
who were before you. How does the Christian respond?
How does the citizen of the kingdom respond? We respond by being
rejoicing and exceedingly glad. And the word for exceedingly
glad in Greek means skipping and leaping for joy. You don't
have to do that here today, That means a lot of gladness, exceedingly
glad. So the Christian doesn't retaliate
with retaliation. He doesn't react with retaliation.
He doesn't sulk. He doesn't go to his room and
lick his wounds. No, he rejoices. Because one,
a reward in heaven is great. If we lose everything on earth,
so what? This is temporary. Death is but our entrance into
glory. We have treasures in heaven that cannot be taken away, and
they're eternally more great. The Sermon on the Mount says
you should lay up treasures in heaven. That's where our heart
should be. Secondly, we rejoice because the prophets before us
were persecuted in the same way. What a privilege it is to be
in their company. By the grace of God, Hebrews
chapter 11 says of those who died because of their faith,
the world was not worthy of them. What a privilege it is to somehow
be in their company. And lastly, our reward is great
in heaven. The prophets before us were persecuted
likewise. Lastly, we share in Christ's
sufferings when we are persecuted for His sake. What a great privilege
it is to suffer in Christ's place. An honor to suffer in His place
as He suffered infinitely more in our place for us. In Romans
8, we're told that our suffering for Christ on this earth is not
worthy to be compared to the glory that will know with Him.
In Acts 5, the apostles were mistreated and imprisoned and
told, don't say anything about Christ again, and they were let
go. And they departed, and it said they rejoiced that they
were counted worthy to suffer shame in the name of Christ Jesus. So yes, blessed are you, and
rejoice and be exceedingly glad. And so to close, to try to wrap
up all of these together, all eight, to try to close with Christ
in some fashion. In summary, this might be old
by now because we've repeated a lot of things, but stick with
me. In summary, the sinner acknowledges his spiritual poverty and his
hopeless state before God. That's beatitude number one.
And then two and three, he emotionally reacts in mourning and repentance
over his sin, and he meekly turns to holy God. And then the fourth
beatitude, then upon seeing God's holiness and glory, he hungers
and thirsts in faith after the righteousness that can only be
provided by Christ. And then he's filled, he's comforted,
he inherits the earth, and his is the kingdom of heaven. That
was last week. And now, having received mercy, he turns to his
fellow sinners with that same mercy. And now, having a heart
washed pure by the blood of Christ, beatitude number six, he seeks
relationships with God and with man in sincerity and integrity. and he can by the Spirit of God.
Now the seventh, when now knowing God's peace at the great expense
of his Son, he strives for peace, whatever the cost. And then lastly,
with the same righteousness that he craved for and is filled with,
that's now displayed in some manner by the Spirit of God and
it causes persecution for Christ's sake, yet he is blessed, he is
happy, he's leaping for joy, he's comforted, He's filled and
he's exceedingly joyful and glad. It's interesting, these work
in pairs, the first and the fifth and the second and sixth and
so on. Only those who are poor in spirit can genuinely be merciful. Only those whose hearts are cleansed
by the tears of mourning can be pure in heart. Only those
who are humble and meek can strive for peace with others. And only
those who are hungering after righteousness can receive it
and be persecuted for Christ's sake because of it. John Stott
says, the character of the kingdom and its king that we just saw
in the Beatitudes, it's furthered in the whole Sermon on the Mount,
is completely foreign to the world. You see how this is just
completely different from the world we live in? John Stott
says, the world judges the rich to be blessed, not the poor. The world judges the happy-go-lucky
and the carefree, not those who take evil so seriously that they
mourn over it. Takes the strong and brash to
be blessed, not the meek and the gentle. The full, not the
hungry. Those who mind their own business
are blessed, not those who meddle in other men's matters and occupy
their time and do goodery, I like that word, like showing mercy
and making peace. The world looks at those who
are secure and popular and live at ease as being blessed, not
those who have to suffer persecution. The disciples of Christ, the
citizens of the kingdom, are so foreign to the world that
they become unwelcome guests and disturbers of the peace in
a world that rejects them. However, it is then that they
can influence the world for good as salt and light in the world,
which if you've looked at what comes next in the Sermon on the
Mount, that's what Jesus says next. Now that you understand
these things from the Beatitudes, now you can go forth and be salt
and light in the world. If you're not in the kingdom
of heaven by the mercy of God, by the blood of Christ, by the
life-giving spirit of God, we urge you then to come to Christ
Jesus into this kingdom and unto salvation. Understand that you're
helplessly poor in spirit. You need to mourn for your sin,
to be humbled before God, desperately needing Christ's forgiveness
through his death and his resurrection, and given life through Christ.
You must have God's mercy in Christ. You must have a new heart
in Christ. You must have peace with God through Christ Jesus.
And so we urge you to come to Christ who, though rich, became
poor through His poverty, that we might become rich in Him.
2 Corinthians 8. Christ who mourned over sin to
become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5. Christ who, though God humbled
Himself to take on flesh, to be obedient as a man to the point
of death on the cross, Philippians chapter two, who knew hunger
and thirst and death as a man that he might provide righteousness
for us. We urge you to come to this Christ
who out of mercy and compassion upon us laid down his life to
save us according to his great mercy. who in his purity and
as the Prince of Peace himself came to bring to us peace and
reconciliation with God, that we might be adopted into the
family of God as sons and daughters. Christ, who is persecuted to
the point of death, that we might have eternal life. And the privilege to be persecuted
for him is given to us with the promise of greater glory in eternity. If you have not, won't you come
to this Christ now in repentance of sin and faith in Him and His
work for sinners like you? Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father,
we thank You for the simplicity of Your Word, but the depth of
Your Word. The Beatitudes are so often misunderstood, but they
have such depth, but also such simple application that we can't
mine all of it in one Sunday or two, or perhaps even in a
lifetime. but teach us, Lord, what Christ
has taught about the entrance into His kingdom and the living
in His kingdom by the power of His kingdom, the Spirit of God,
according to the work of Christ Jesus applied to us, that we
might live in such a life that would be pleasing to you, O Father.
We pray, Lord, for those who are outside of Christ, that today
would be the day of salvation for them, that they would see
they must mourn over their sin, they'd see the depth of their
sin before Holy God, but see then the depth of what Christ
has done to redeem sinners from their sin and to bring them to
God. And they'd come in faith and repentance, exchanging their
sin for the righteousness of Christ, to know the purity of
heart and the new life in Christ. And then help us to live this
life by your Spirit, Lord, that we would have lives that would
have humility and service and holiness and blessedness, peacemaking,
integrity, all of these things, Lord, because we reflect your
character in a world that desperately needs to know you. This is the
greatest way that we can bring honor and glory to you and be
used as a means to bring salvation to the lost. May it be so, Lord,
in our lives today. And so in Jesus' name, we pray
these things. Amen.
Beatitudes: Character of the Kingdom, Part 2
| Sermon ID | 930241259505169 |
| Duration | 49:25 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 5:7-12 |
| Language | English |
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