Morning Service
Text: Matthew 5:7-12
Subject: More Beatitudes
Title: Living With One Another
Last week we looked at the first beatitudes and if you look closely at them you can notice that the first four deal specifically with one’s relationship with God.
1. The poor in spirit recognize their spiritual bankruptcy in their own righteousness and turn to God’s righteousness in Christ Jesus.
2. Those who mourn do so for the sins of the nation as well as their personal sins and understand that sin separates us from God.
3. Meekness is our personal understanding of who we are in our own righteousness and recognition of our need to be changed by God. It is not to be confused with weakness for when we are meek we see our failings but firmly stand in the strength of God.
4. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness seek the bread of life and the living water that flows from God. They are not satisfied with just showing up at church but want to have a personal encounter with God every time they are in His house. A message in tongues and interpretation is something good for them but they realize that God wants to do more and they are totally dependant on Him and expect more every time they seek Him.
When we stop and consider the first word of every beatitude, we have to believe that God wants us to be blessed. It must be important to Him or else it wouldn’t have been repeated so much. What kind of blessings do we receive when we are blessed?
F.E. Marsh has enumerated some of God’s blessings:
An acceptance that can never be questioned. (Ephesians 1:6).
An inheritance that can never be lost (I Peter 1:3-5).
A deliverance that can never be excelled (2 Corinthians l:10).
A grace that can never be limited (2 Corinthians 12:9).
A hope that can never be disappointed. (Hebrews 6:18, 19).
A bounty that can never be withdrawn. (I Colossians 3:21-23).
A joy that need never be diminished (John 15:11).
A nearness to God that can never be reversed (Ephesians 2:13).
A peace that can never be disturbed (John 14:27).
A righteousness that can never be tarnished (2 Corinthians 5:21).
A salvation that can never be canceled (Hebrews 5:9).
F.E. Marsh
The next four beatitudes deal more with our relationships with one another. They deal with mercy, purity, peace, and persecution. Because they deal with personal relationships in the physical realm does not separate them from the previous set of four. Actually, our relationships with one another are so closely tied to our relationship with God that they cannot be separated.
By understanding our relationships with one another we can better understand the relationship that God desires to have with us. Let’s look at the way God wants us to respond to one another.
I. Our blessed relationships with one another.
A. Verse 7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy”. What is mercy and what is its purpose? Webster’s dictionary says that, “mercy is compassionate rather than severe behavior towards someone in one’s power.” Mercy operates on two different planes: It offers forgiveness for the guilty. Stop and think about this. When was the last time that someone offended you and asked for forgiveness? Did you forgive them? Jesus went on to say at the end of Chapter 5, “If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Mercy provides compassion for the suffering and needy. Matthew 25:34-40, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ ‘Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothing and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” 1.Mercy does not wait for a situation to present itself to come forward. Mercy is a way of life. 2. The reward for showing mercy is not mercy shown by others in return but the mercy of God. 3. Our mercy is not something done to receive God’s mercy, but it is shown because of God’s mercy. Mercy follows perfectly with the context of the preceding verses. If we are meek we will be merciful. To be meek is to acknowledge to others that we are sinners totally dependent on God’s grace and mercy. To be merciful is to have compassion on others for they are sinners too!
B. Verse 8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” One of the important themes in Matthew’s Gospel is inner moral purity as opposed to outward piety or ceremonial cleanness. This theme alludes directly to Psalm 24:3-5, “Who may ascend the holy hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord. Pure in heart can also refer to single mindedness; being free from a divided self. Many OT passages referring to purity focus on freedom from deceit. This then naturally prepares the way for 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light”. If you are pure in heart, then the rest of your body will be right along side. The pure in heart then are utterly sincere in their relationships with others. There is no real contrast between the two possible meanings of ‘pure in heart”. In fact, it is impossible to have one without the other. One who is single minded in his relationship with God will be morally pure in his relationships with his fellow man. The truth found here eliminates the possibility of hypocrisy. The pure in heart will see God. (As their reward) The can see Him with the eyes of faith now. By understanding your fellow man you can come to know God more personally. We are all created in his image. We can expect to see Him in dazzling brilliance of His glory when He returns.
C. Verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God”. Jesus’ concern as He speaks these words is not with peace or the peaceful, but with the peacemakers. Peace is an ongoing theme in the OT and NT. Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’.” Notice the correlation between the “good news, good tidings, salvation” and peace. These are all linked together with God’s reign. Peace is connected with the reign of God as the Messiah comes into the world to set the captives free. Therefore, we can see that Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker because He alone brings peace between sinful man and a Holy God. Now also, those who bring the message of salvation bring peace, so they too are peacemakers. Continuing in the theme of the peacemaker as one who shares the salvation message, Romans 10:13-15. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” Our peacemaking includes taking the gospel into the world, but does not stop there. It must extend to seeking all kinds of reconciliation. Instead of causing division, bitterness and strife, the true peacemaker will bring unity but not at the expense of the truth. That means that the gospel is not to be compromised. Ephesians 2:11-16, “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)- remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile them both to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. Jesus came and died on the cross to bring unity and peace among those who were divided. By His dying on a cross He brought death to the division that was between Jews and Gentiles. The true model of peacemaking is costly. It cost Jesus His life. But he brought peace without compromise. And those of you who undertake this responsibility of bringing peace through the gospel message and try to reconcile differences through the same message will be called sons of God. In the OT Israel has the title of “sons”. Now we can be heirs of God as well and the kingdom belongs to those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful, for these qualities equip you for peacemaking. And in our peacemaker role we can reflect a bit of the Father’s character to the world around us. Remember what I told you last week about the crowd that followed Jesus as He taught the Sermon on the Mount? There were those who followed him for political gain. Many of these were the Zealots, who had a particular passion for the nation of Israel and a desire to see Israel independent. Imagine what a shock it must have been to them as Jesus preached this message of peace, reconciliation and salvation. It may be a shock to some of you, that Jesus wants us to be peacemakers, even uniting those in the world with the church. But remember what I said about compromise. Jesus doesn’t call us to compromise for the sake of peace, for that is not true peace. But we are to share the Gospel of peace. Paul tells us when putting on our spiritual armor, that we are to have our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. The peace that comes from opening hearts to the salvation message brings the peace that passes all understanding and that is the only peace that will truly unite all of us. Once there was a very bitter man who was sick in his soul, mind and body. He was in the hospital, in a wretched condition, not because of any illness caused by a virus or a germ, but because of the anger and contempt and self-pity he carried in his soul. Finally one day he said to his nurse, “Why don’t you just give me something to end it all right now?” Much to his surprise the nurse said, “OK”. And then went to the table beside his bed and took out the bible and began reading. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” When she finished reading she said, “There, if you will believe this it will end it all. God loves you, He will accept you, and He will forgive you. You will be his child.” The truth spoken by this nurse brings peace not only in this man’s life but also between him and his creator.
D. Verse 10, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is not by accident that Jesus goes from peacemaker to persecution. The world enjoys its hates and prejudices so much that a peacemaker is not always welcome. Opposition is a normal mark of being a disciple of Christ. Some would have this mean that that we are persecuted because of the righteous one, Jesus. That is true for Jesus said that if the world hates us it hated Him first. But haven’t you ever noticed how the world disdains those who are truly righteousness. If you aren’t politically correct you pay the price. John 3:19-21, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” See the conflict? It helps us to understand why people don’t want to hear the truth of the gospel. When they come too near the light everyone, even they themselves, see that their deeds are evil. Notice here that the reward of the persecuted is the same as those who are poor in spirit; the kingdom of heaven. Jesus finishes by saying, “blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Conclusion:
Rejoice and be glad. People will say evil things against you if you play the peacemaker role.
Rejoice when you show mercy, for you will be persecuted for your actions.
If you are pure in heart, be glad when the world hates your purity.
Rejoice if you are persecuted because of righteousness. Look, the world walks in darkness and the darkness of the world is just living up to its nature; it is dark. But, if you are living up to what a Christian is supposed to be, you should be bringing light into the darkness and the world will not like it. They will do everything to prove you to be a hypocrite. They will try to entice you into sin. They want to bring you down into their world of sin and despair.
But listen, and be glad because you are in good company. The prophets of God, the ones who boldly spoke God’s word to Israel were not even accepted by the chosen people of God. Why? Because they spoke words that rained on their parade. Words of light into a world of darkness.
Let me ask you this. When you are in the world can they see any light? Or do you just blend in, waiting for the right moment to share a little bit about the bible in an inoffensive way. You see, I believe the church has a misconception of peace. We have a tendency to think of peace as a lack of conflict. But that is not peace. Most times that is compromise.
Poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, all of these are qualities that Jesus exemplified as a model. We have to be Christ like. There will be persecution, but rejoice, the kingdom of heaven is yours.
