The Beatitudes

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

So turn in your Bibles to the gospel of Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 begins the section known as the

Sermon on the Mount. And the first 12 verses are known as the

Beatitudes. And they began, the Beatitudes do, they began in verse 3,

Blessed are the poor in spirit. So that's what I've titled this message,

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Because everything else that Jesus mentions really flows out of that.

The word Beatitude refers to an exalted state of blessing. Or to simplify it, the word blessed or blessed simply means happy.

Happy are you or happy are they. So we'll begin reading Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 1.

In 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, or happy, 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. And blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And 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 reward in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I just ask that you would be honored this morning, that your word would be honored, that Christ would be honored.

And Lord, I ask that you would give me the ability to teach your word with clarity. May it be an encouragement to your people.

And Lord, give us knowledge and understanding and the wisdom to apply what you have in this passage for each one.

So, Lord, prepare and open our hearts that we may receive a blessing. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. So the Beatitudes, they really act as the introduction to the

Sermon on the Mount. And before we go through these verses a little more closely, let's spend a moment and just talk about what is the

Sermon on the Mount? What is it all about? Why is Jesus teaching and how did he formulate the

Sermon on the Mount? What are Christ's intentions here? Throughout the ages, people have interpreted the

Sermon on the Mount differently. For example, the medieval church believed that the

Sermon on the Mount represented a higher ethic that was directed mainly towards clergy.

Of course, back then, the only people that had access to the scriptures were clergy. So it's not a surprise that they held to that view.

In more modern times, some dispensationalists have seen this as Jesus speaking only to the

Jews and that we are not expected to live by these teachings.

This is just about the coming kingdom age, so it's mainly just for the Jews in the kingdom.

And then a third interpretation, theological liberals have seen the Sermon on the Mount basically as the social gospel.

That Jesus really didn't come to die for our sins and rise again to give us everlasting life.

No, they see the reason for Jesus coming is to make the world a better place. And that Jesus is teaching people how to be more tolerant and to help the poor and to help with welfare and social work.

So what's the Sermon on the Mount really about? Do any of those positions really capture the true meaning?

I think all three positions missed the mark, some more than others.

But I'll work to demonstrate this in the following weeks. But this is what I believe to be the primary intent of the

Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, what he's doing, he's teaching on the deeper implications of the

Mosaic law. So we're all familiar with the Ten Commandments. There's the law of Moses, which has many more commandments.

So Jesus is expounding on the deeper meaning of the law of Moses.

After all, Jesus says, look at Matthew 5, 17, Jesus says, I did not come to destroy the law.

I came to fulfill it. So they had their idea of what the Ten Commandments and the law was all about.

Jesus is talking about the law. But what he is saying isn't really lining up with their preconceived notion.

So he's trying to correct them and to show them the deeper implications, the true meaning of God's law.

So that's what I believe the Sermon on the Mount is about. So it's a sermon, right?

That's what it's called. And who's the preacher? Well, Jesus is the preacher.

And oftentimes when a preacher chooses a topic to speak on, they will often choose a topic based on what they believe is needed.

So in this sermon, Jesus recognizes these people need to know this. This is what they need to hear.

So you have to consider the preacher. You have to consider the audience. Jesus is talking to the

Jews, of course. That much we know. The problem was that the Jews believed that they were keeping

God's law. The Jews back then, they believed they were keeping the commandments.

And they thought that salvation or inheritance in the kingdom belonged to them for two reasons.

Number one, they're keeping the commandments. Number two, because they're Jews. I mean this is what they believed. We're descendants of Abraham.

The kingdom belongs to us. We would talk about it that we're going to heaven. The Jewish version is we will inherit the kingdom.

But they thought, of course we're saved. Of course we are going to be blessed by God because we are descended from Abraham.

But was that true? Did you automatically get a ticket in because of your genealogy?

No, that wasn't true. And were they really keeping God's commandments? Well, that wasn't true either.

But they thought they were. So that's what Jesus is doing here. He's trying to show them the truth.

So what's Jesus doing? He's walking through this so that they will realize this for themselves. You understand that you can't just go up to somebody and tell them like the straight truth sometimes.

People don't react to that well. They don't want to accept it. They need to see the truth for themselves, right?

You need to kind of lead them step by step so that they will see it. Jesus could just tell them these things but probably wouldn't have gone over well.

So he's taking them through step by step. So here's the problem that Jesus was dealing with or the nation was dealing with.

The nation of Israel as a group, not saying every individual, but as a whole, the nation really had become self -righteous.

Certainly the religious leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they were self -righteous.

They believed they were keeping the commandments. And they looked at how others lived and they felt justified.

They looked at the heathen, the Gentiles, the unbelievers, and we are so much better than they are.

But in thinking that, they became blind to their own problems. Don't you know as Christians we can kind of fall into that same trap?

It's really easy to spot the flaws of other people but sometimes we lack that awareness of our own issues.

So we can start to think that, well, you know, I don't do this and I don't do that. And then we can look at other people and what they're doing and we can fool ourselves into thinking that I'm right with God because I'm doing all these good things.

Well, let's just say for example that you are living a better life than this other guy over here.

What does that prove? It doesn't prove much because you're not living as good a life as this other person over there.

And you're definitely not living the life that Jesus lived. So making yourself the standard that's what people end up doing.

I'm the standard, I'm better than those people. And this is just totally the wrong way of thinking.

So Jesus is trying to show them the true standard. And what's the standard? God's standard is perfection because God is holy, he's perfect.

So really every human being on earth falls short of the standard. That's what Jesus wants to get across.

And that's what a person has to recognize before they can accept the message of Christ which is the gospel.

So that's what the Sermon on the Mount, that's what's happening here. Look at Matthew 5, 2, and 3.

We'll go through these verses. It says, He opened his mouth and he taught them saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So a lot of people they see the word poor and they think well it just means people that are poor. That's not what

Jesus is talking about. He's talking about the poor in spirit. So someone who is poor in spirit, that means they recognize that they are lacking something spiritually.

The poor in spirit means you recognize that you are spiritually bankrupt.

And that without God's grace we have no hope in this world.

To be poor in spirit means there is no self -righteous spirit within you to cause you to think that of course

God will accept me because I'm such a good person. We talked about this in Sunday school.

You know what self -righteousness is? This is really what the majority of people believe that if there is a place called heaven, of course

I'm going there because I'm such a good person. That's what most people think. But you think about it,

I, self, am a good person. That's righteousness. To say

I'm a good person or I'm right with God because I'm doing all these right things, that itself is self -righteousness.

That's not the way most people look at it though. So the one who will be blessed by God, the one who is happy is the one who recognizes their spiritual need.

Do you recognize that you have a spiritual need before God? So the one who will be received into the kingdom of God is the one who admits that they need to be saved and turns to Christ in humility with a simple childlike faith.

Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So it all starts by recognizing your need for God's grace. The next statement,

Blessed are those who mourn. So remember, Jesus is taking them step by step.

So if poor in spirit means that, what are they mourning over? Well, the mourning would be a mourning over sin, that we have offended a holy

God. And this godly sorrow, you know, some people are sorry because they got caught, right?

That's one reason people are sorry. Others recognize that I have sinned,

I have offended a holy God, and that godly sorrow is what leads to genuine repentance.

And all who seek the Lord in this way, the promise is that they shall be comforted.

Why? Because God forgives all those who come to him in humility and faith.

And don't you know that Jesus deals with people? He dealt with people in the most gentle of ways.

You know, I don't think there was ever a man who was as gentle as Christ.

Now, Christ could be hard too. Those people that were proud, right?

The religious leaders, Jesus was not only hard, I would say he was harsh with them, but to the lowly, to the humble,

Jesus was very kind. He was very compassionate, even to the worst of sinners.

So Christ deals with such people in the most gentle of ways. Matthew chapter 12, verse 12 says, a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench.

Now that doesn't really translate well in our modern day. What does that mean? One commentator says this, the bruised reed that he will not break, these represent people who are deemed useless by the world.

Christ's work was to restore and rekindle such people, not to break them or to quench them.

And this speaks of his tender compassion toward the lowliest of the lost.

You know, the world would just discard people that they don't really matter. They're not going to benefit me in any way.

The world doesn't care about people like that, but Jesus cares. The Lord cares. So Jesus was very kind to those who showed humility.

So blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Coronet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscoronetchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.