Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
April 6, 2008

Rev. L. John Gable

“THE BEATITUDES "

Matthew 5:1-12

Introduction: We know that spring and summer are the seasons for growing.  We see evidence of it all around us as we watch the shoots come out of ground and wait for the buds on the trees to open.  Spring and summer can also be seasons for us to grow spiritually, so this morning we are beginning a sermon series on Jesus’ teaching called the “Sermon on the Mount.”  I am very much looking forward to our time of study together as we explore and examine this most important teaching of our Lord.  In anticipation and preparation for our time together I will encourage you to read through the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety, not just once, but with some regularity as we make our way through it together.  I will even suggest and encourage you to find some part or parts of it that you would like to commit to memory, so that you can continue to absorb and draw on this rich resource.

          Matthew introduces this teaching of our Lord by saying, “When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up the mountain.  And after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.  Then He began to speak and taught them, saying…” 

          This may seem to us to be a rather unusual and perhaps even unnecessary introduction, but it gives us a clear insight in to the importance of this teaching.  It was normal for a rabbi or a teacher to talk with his students as they walked on the road together, but when he was ready to formally teach them something of importance, something he really wanted them to remember, the rabbi would sit down and his students, or disciples, would gather around him.  This is what Matthew describes for us when he says, “Jesus sat down” ( the formal posture for teaching) and His disciples came to Him, then He “opened His mouth” and began to speak to them,  (emphasizing the importance of the message).

          I have found the same to be true in my own teaching ministry through the years.  I may be standing at the lectern teaching, but often will sit down when I respond to a question.  Years ago I remember sitting down as I started to answer a question in an Adult Bible class I was teaching, and as I did so I heard one woman whisper to her neighbor, “Uh, oh, we’re in for a long answer.”  That may have been true, but what was really happening was I was moving away from lecturing to speaking from the heart.  I was moving away from speaking abstractly, to speaking personally.   By sitting down to teach Jesus was giving the message to His disciples, “You might want to take out your note pads because this is something I want you to remember.”

          Two other observations about this introduction to the Sermon on the Mount which Matthew gives us.  First, Jesus withdrew from the crowds and gathered His disciples around Him for this teaching.  The Sermon on the Mount is not intended for the uncommitted masses, but for the committed few.  Read it in its entirety and you will quickly see that this is not a soft-sell sales pitch to attract followers.  It is a straight-forward and often challenging teaching on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

          It would also be worth noting that what we are about to read and study together is not light weight summer reading.  It is the essence and core of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God and the demands of discipleship.  If we take His words seriously, which of course I hope we do, we might well come to the conclusion that this teaching should have a warning label on it. 

“Caution!  Read at your own risk of being challenged and changed!”  John R.W. Stott calls it the “manifesto of the Christian counter-culture” and Dietrich Bonhoeffer uses it as the basis for his classic, The Cost of Discipleship.  In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus lays out for us, in no uncertain terms, the ethical demands of the Gospel and calls us to moral obedience to God’s commands.  But this is more than a mere list of rules and regulations for us to follow.  As devotional writer Oswald Chambers puts it, “The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting His way with us.”  Jesus gives us a glimpse in to life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

          The second observation I will make about this introduction is this: Matthew states, “Jesus began to speak and taught them, saying…”  In the Greek, the verb tense suggests that this is a continuous and on-going action, which means it would better be translated, “He began teaching and goes on teaching.”  This message is not just for disciples long ago and far away.  It is intended for you and me today as it lays out for us the demands of the Gospel, and allows each of us to discover the power to live as followers of Jesus Christ.

          So, we are ready to begin our study, and as we do so, let us pray.
          “Lord, it is our prayer that Your Word and Your Words might come to life for us and within us, that we might be challenged and changed by it, to the end that we might bear fruit for the work of Your Kingdom.  Help us to hear, not just with our ears but also with our hearts, Your great call to follow in Your way as disciples of Jesus Christ.  In His name we pray.   Amen.”

          Jesus begins this great teaching with what we have come to call the Beatitudes.  If the Sermon on the Mount is the essence of Christian teaching, then it would be safe to say that the Beatitudes are the essence of the essence.  The word “beatitude” comes from the first word in each of these eight phrases which we have translated, “blessed”.  “Oh the joy…Oh the blessedness…Oh the happiness of” and then each blessing is followed by a promise.

          Let’s listen again to the blessings of our Lord, beginning at verse 3. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

          I wonder, what is our first reaction to this teaching?  I hope our ears haven’t become too dulled to the radical nature of this message after so many years of hearing.  Is our first response surprise, shock, confusion, misunderstanding, a desire for more clarification?  If it is not, then I would suggest we aren’t really listening or not really hearing, and need to read it again, more slowly, until it begins to sink in.  In this opening volley of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us a very clear picture of just how radical and counter-cultural His teaching is going to be.  Life in the Kingdom of God is very different than life as we know it, then or now; so as followers of Jesus Christ we should begin to prepare now for life as it one day will be when God finally has His way with us, and the Beatitudes introduce us to the necessary first step.

          Years ago there was a break in at a large department store in Boston.  At first it went unnoticed because the intruders didn’t take or damage any merchandise.  However, what they did wreaked such havoc and confusion that the store had to close its doors for a week.  Rather than taking anything, these intruders simply changed the price tags on everything.  A diamond necklace that would normally sell for several thousand dollars was marked $1.99.  A $5 shirt on the clearance rack suddenly cost hundreds.  What these intruders did caused total confusion because it radically changed the value and worth of everything.

          As we look more closely at the Beatitudes, and in a larger sense the whole teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, we see that Jesus has done essentially the same thing.  Like the intruders in the Boston department store, He challenges and changes every one of our worldly standards.  That which we think is of great value and importance, Jesus discounts as being of very little worth in the Kingdom of God.  Those qualities and characteristics which we deem to be worthless in the affairs of earth become of great value in the economy of Heaven.  Jesus sets up a new standard of values, ethics, ideals and behaviors, and as we will see, His standards are radical for they counter everything our society teaches us.  However, as radical and challenging as this teaching is, we will discover, and this should come as no surprise to us, that Jesus is right.  He is speaking a truth to us that we need to hear, and even in our opposition to it, we know in our heart of hearts that it really is true.  Scholar C.E.M Joad writes, “We know, in fact, that we ought to live as Jesus enjoined.  We may say that Christ’s prescription of good living is wholly impractical and is much too difficult; but that does not alter our conviction that it is (nonetheless) the right prescription.”

          We get a glimpse of the truth of this way of thinking whenever we play the hypothetical game, “If your house was on fire and you had time to run in and get only one thing, not counting children and pets, what would it be?”  Invariably, we would go in, not for that which is most costly, but for that which is most valuable to us, and those are not necessarily one in the same thing.  We may well go for the priceless photo album rather than the costly painting.  This begins to hint at what Jesus is saying to us here.  He is going to speak to our hearts, with the intention that our heads will follow.  He is going to teach us a new design for living according to the values and standards of the Kingdom of Heaven, so we must brace ourselves, for they are very different than the values and standards to which we have grown accustomed to living.

          The first Beatitude becomes a touchstone for all the rest.  Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Now, what is the meaning of that?  There is nothing particularly ennobling about being poor, nothing glamorous or desirable about lacking the daily requirements of food or drink or shelter.  So we must be careful not to misread this teaching such that we refuse to help those in need “for their own good.”  However, what Jesus does say is that the poor know something that the rich do not; they know their need.  Then He puts a spiritual spin on it and says, “There is a blessing that comes to those who know their need for God”, and this becomes a consistent teaching throughout His ministry.

          New Testament scholar Dale Bruner calls it the “holy paradox of grace.”  “Jesus blesses our inadequacy.  It is those who feel their sin with hurt and the need for repentance who are really righteous; and it is those who are so sure they are righteous, who think they have no need of repentance, who are the real sinners.”

          Strange as it may sound, there is a blessing that comes from the recognition of our spiritual poverty, and that is the keen awareness of our complete and utter dependence upon God.  So Jesus is making the joyful announcement “Blessed are you who know your need for God.  Blessed are you who know that stuff can’t fill the deep longing in your heart for meaning and purpose and love.  Blessed are you who recognize your sin and your need for repentance, for you will have your needs met by the only One who can truly meet them, by God Himself.  But those who give no such honest reflection and show no such honest repentance will go away empty.”

          Who gets to know God?  Those who know their need for God.  Who gets to see God?  Those who seek Him, who hunger and thirst after Him.  Who will receive mercy?  Those who show mercy.  The world teaches us that God helps those who help themselves.  That is not Scripture; that is Benjamin Franklin.  Scripture teaches us that God helps those who can’t help themselves.  So, if we think we can, we can’t.  And if we know we can’t, we can.  Such is the “holy paradox of God’s grace.”

          As we consider the meaning of each of the Beatitudes we need to understand that these are not descriptions of eight different kinds of individuals, “the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek” and so on.  Rather these are eight qualities that describe what we are called to do and be as followers of Jesus Christ.  And that’s where the rub comes.  The Beatitudes, really the entire Sermon on the Mount, calls us to choose our allegiances.  By what and by whose standards are we going to live our lives, God’s or the world’s?  It is ever our decision, but one which each of us must make for ourselves.  We are either part of the crowd, those who are curious, even fascinated by Jesus’ teaching but remain totally uncommitted, or one of the disciples who are willing count the cost of discipleship and commit ourselves to living the life God intends for us to live as one of His followers.