Title of tonight's message is The King's Unexpected Blessing
for the Undeserved. The King's unexpected Blessing
for the undeserved. We're stepping into what is
known as the Sermon on the Mount tonight, chapters 5-6 and seven
out of the Gospel of Matthew, and we'll be here for a number
of weeks. And that was what I really
wrestled with through this week was how much to tackle tonight.
You could so easily spend a sermon on each of the Beatitudes
that we're looking at. Firstly, I rewrote my sermon
some three times and here we are.
This is the approach that I believe that the Holy Spirit has
for us tonight. But this is perhaps the most
famous extended teaching of Jesus in the New Testament.
If you were to read it through Matthew 5 through to seven, take
about 10 minutes of our time. But no doubt when Jesus
delivered it, it was much longer to those gathered present in the
moment. But here's what we do want to
and here's why I was just you know, so deliberate through the
week is really wanting to handle God's word as as is the case
every week, but particularly this sermon.
Handle it carefully and faithfully.
God's word is, is worthy of us being students of the word to
unpack it and, and for you in in in honour of the time that
you're committing here to be able to hear from God and and
not from men. But let me begin with a
question. Hopefully by now you've found
Matthew 5 and it's not a trick question.
It's not a question where I need audible responses necessarily,
but for you to think about and to ponder by way of
introduction, what is one of our culture's most favourite sayings
about God. God helps those who help
themselves. Yeah, maybe you had a a kind
hearted grandmother who used to tell you that when things got
tough. Grandfather or somebody in the
family. God helps those you know who
help themselves. And it sounds wise.
It's carved almost into and out of our cultural DNA.
But here's the problem. Nothing has ever been less true
according to the Bible. This is what we're going to see
tonight. Grandma, Grandpa, God bless
their hearts. We're heretics.
That saying God helps those who helps themselves reveals why the
Beatitudes are so difficult. And there are many
misapplications, misinterpretations of it because
we live in a self sufficient society that values those that
do go out and help themselves, but do go out and make the most
of the opportunities that are presented before them.
We're a strength worshipping culture.
We admire that, we honour that, we're victory obsessed.
We're a power oriented culture. These are the types of go
getters in society that we look on with admiration and and oh,
if I could just emulate so and so because they've done this and
they've achieved that and they've accomplished so much.
And therefore what happens is we make lies about God.
As a consequence, God helps those who help themselves
because that fits in so nicely with what our culture values.
And because of that lens, these words that we're going to read
in Matthew 51 to 12 don't make sense to us at first because it
seems so opposite, so contrary to what is valued in society and
the world in which we live. And so instinctively as we read
these verses, we try to turn the Beatitudes into A to do list
into a spiritual check box that tick, tick, tick, yes, that's
me. So therefore I will be blessed.
Something that we can achieve in order to earn God's blessing
upon our lives. If I do these things, if I
become that, if I do that, But Jesus here, here's what I want
us to understand tonight as we read it in a moment.
He's not giving us good advice on how to be blessed.
What Jesus is announcing here is good news, not good advice, but
good news. It's God's unexpected blessing
that comes to the undeserved. So let's read the passage
Matthew 51 to 12:00 And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a
mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to
him, and he opened his mouth. Verse 2 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.
We addressed this on Friday night with the youth group.
It's that verse and being hungry after God and His righteousness.
Blessed verse 7 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, be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in
heaven. For so they persecuted the
prophets who were before you. This is God's holy, infallible
word. It's life giving to us.
It's so relevant and applicable. So here's what we're going to
do. We're going to pray.
Let's bow our heads, close our eyes.
Father God, we rejoice for the purity and the power of your
word tonight. We're so thankful for the truth
that we can receive. Help us to not only hear, but to
live out and apply. Anoint now our hearing.
Anoint now my words, they come direct from your throne to US.
Open our hearts to receive this gospel, this good news that
would just so bless us and will it make Jesus all the more pre
eminent in our lives. It's in Jesus name we pray,
Amen, Amen. Matthew all along through this
Gospel as we've been studying, is presenting this Jesus of
Nazareth to be the promised 1 the Messiah, the King, the one
who was to come had been promised from of old and now he
is here. He is the Saviour.
And yet from the beginning what Matthew has been highlighting
for us chapter by chapter as we've been going through it is
that everything about Jesus has been unexpected.
Matthew's been telling us that all the way back in chapter 1
we're told that he came from a broken assorted family tree.
Remember that we had a look at some of those that were in Jesus
ancestry. That he was born in a stable in
a small town, not in a palace. That he became a refugee,
fleeing corrupt power as he fled on into Egypt.
That he was then raised in an obscure place in Nazareth.
But Nathaniel himself would ask the question, scoffing.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth, says off the map.
Small town and Jesus would be doing manual labour, following
in his earthly father's footsteps.
And he was announced, we saw by a locust eating a bug, eating
camel hair wearing weirdo out in the wilderness and his cousin in
John the Baptist. And then the baptism.
And that in itself is unexpected, John the Baptizer
said. What are you coming to be
baptised for? You should be baptising me.
But Jesus nonetheless was baptised, and the heavens opened
and the Spirit descended like a dove and a voice.
The Father from heaven spoke and declared, This is my beloved
Son. And then Jesus, Matthew 4 faced
Satan in the wilderness again unexpectedly under the Holy
Spirit's driving and direction. And he won where Adam failed,
where Israel failed, where all of humanity fails, Jesus won the
victory and and proved that he is the king.
He is the promised one in God's gracious and righteous rule has
now arrived in him. And so Jesus begins to declare
repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is here.
And last week we looked at it, Matthew 4, verses 23 to 25,
Jesus announcing this, teaching this in the synagogue's,
demonstrating this, explaining the Gospel, healing people and
multitudes coming and and gathering and receiving and and
hearing that good news again, let's read back in Matthew 4,
verse 23. Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the
Kingdom, healing all kinds of sickness, all kinds of disease
among the people. And then his fame went
throughout all Syria. They brought to Him all sick
people who were afflicted with very diseases and torments, and
those who are demon possessed epileptics and paralytics, and
He healed them and great multitudes.
Verse 25 followed him from Galilee, from the capitalist
Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
It's marvellous, wonderful moment now taught in the
synagogues, preached in bold declaration the Kingdom of
heaven is here, and that a response is needed.
If the King is here, then repent, surrender your rule and
reign over your life and submit yourself to the one true King.
Jesus is his name and he demonstrated his power by
healing the sick, casting out the demons, the paralysed.
We're no longer in the suffering.
He is the King, His Kingdom is here, and amongst other things,
these healings shout this truth. God helps those who cannot help
themselves, right? God helps those who cannot help
themselves. Jesus would later say, it's the
sick that need a physician. Jesus would later say, I have
come to seek and to save the lost.
We are told in the Scriptures that he is the friend of
sinners, of the outcast, and of the broken.
And so God in Christ helps those who cannot help themselves.
And now seated on the mountain, verses 1 and 2 of chapter 5, he
explains what he is demonstrating.
If we're to go on a tour of Israel, we'll go to the Church
of the Beatitudes, a Catholic Church there that looks out in
this area that they claim to be this location where Jesus would
have delivered this sermon. It's not so much of A mountain
as it is a hill that slopes up in a nice little valley area,
certainly picturesque, overlooking the Galilee.
There's a little little nun there who kind of rules the
roost at that place, who, you know, you don't want to get on
the wrong side of her. But nonetheless, it's a nice
spot. And the disciples are taught,
Jesus moves up to this mountain. The disciples follow.
Now that's not just the 12, but others who were were gathered.
Then the multitude, out of curiosity, end up overhearing
and and hanging on all of these words of the Sermon on the Mount
that we'll look at in the coming weeks.
And Jesus teaches them. And here we look at these things
that are called the Beatitudes. Again, not good advice on how to
be blessed though that's in there for sure.
But Jesus bringing good news for the unexpected and undeserved.
And notice the structure that comes through this section is
bookend by the same promise. For theirs is the Kingdom of
heaven, verse 3. For theirs is the Kingdom of
heaven verse 10. And everything in between that
is covered that we'll go through and walk through tonight
describes the surprising nature of this Kingdom of heaven.
You see in 1st century Israel, as is much the case today, the
religious elite, Pharisees, the Sadducees, the members of the
Sanhedrin, the scribes, they were the in Group.
They were the righteous ones. They kept the law.
They knew the Torah, they were the ones with power, they were
the ones with money, they were the ones with prominence and
prestige. And if anyone was to be blessed
by God, it would after all, be them.
Because they've earned it. They've deserved it.
They've done the hard yards. They've put in the effort, the
energy and the work. They had successfully helped
themselves. And after all, that's who God
helps. Is it not through their rigorous
rule keeping? And surely the prevailing
thought back then, as is much the case today, is that the
Kingdom of heaven belonged to them because they had impressed
God. Surely after all, they deserved
it, they earned it, they worked for it.
But Jesus turns everything upside down here.
God is not impressed by self sufficient performance.
No, He has come to save the unexpected and the undeserved.
And this is in fact consistent with the whole story of the
Bible as we read it and as we see it, a loving creation.
We see the beginning. All the way back in Genesis, God
made everything good. He declared day after day of
creation because of his love and an act of God, the world came
into existence and being, but there was a sinful rebellion, a
rejection of God as king. Humanity rebelled through Adam
and through Eve and desired to become like God, buying into the
lie of Satan, the enemy. But God had a glorious
redemption plan, and he chose Abram out of ER of the Chaldees,
to make a nation to redeem Israel, to deliver a promised
one, the seed out of which would come through a blessing on to
not only the people of Israel, but all the nations of the
world, and a blessing. But in that note, God did it.
It's out of his grace because of him, not because of them.
And when God chose and rescued and redeemed Israel, it was not
because they were big and strong and mighty and a powerful people
that God looked on the earth and said I have to have them to be
my people. Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 7,
verse 7 and 8. Moses, being instructed by God,
instructs the people of Israel. This says, the Lord did not set
His love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number
than any other people and kid yourselves, for you were the
least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you,
and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your
Father's, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you from the House of bondage, from the hand of
Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7, seven and eight.
See how that is unexpected? Let's be honest.
When you and I are given the opportunity to choose, what are
we picking and selecting? The biggest?
The strongest? Go back to the schoolyard when
picking teams for little sporting events.
Him. On him, we choose the biggest
and the best and the strongest and the most appealing.
God's different, and it wasn't because they were rich and
powerful that God chosen. Deuteronomy 817 to 18 Moses
again speaking to the people of Israel.
Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand
have gained me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your
God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may
establish his covenant, which he swore to your Father's.
As it is this day, you guys haven't done anything.
It's God. And again, God's different
because we today as back then, praise the rich, the celebrity.
Wow. We'll hang on every word that
they utter, the powerful. And it was not even because they
were righteous and obedient that God chose the people of Israel.
Deuteronomy 9 verses four and six.
Do not think in your heart after the Lord, your God has cast them
out before you. The people in Canaan saying
because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me to possess
this land. But it is because of the
wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out
before you. It's not because of your
righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to
possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these
nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you,
that he may fulfil the word which the Lord swore to your
father's, to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob.
Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you
this good land to possess because of your righteousness.
For catch this, you are a stiff necked people.
No Israel, it's not because you're good.
It's not because you're righteous.
In fact, you're a stiff necked people.
He chose them because he loved them because of grace.
He did the unexpected to the undeserved.
It's a whole different logic. It's the Kingdom of heaven and
God is always worked by grace, not by merit.
People of Israel were the smallest, the weakest, the stiff
necked, the undeserving, and yet God acted because He loved them.
That is the story of the Bible. And now in Jesus in the New
Testament, that same grace is being extended and offered to
all of humanity. Jesus brought this home when I
want you to move ahead now with me in your Bible to the Gospel
of Luke. He tells a parable in Luke
chapter 18 verse 9 to 14. In Luke 18 verse 9, the
introduction to this it says also he that is Jesus spoke this
parable to some who look at this trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and despised others.
Jesus says two men went up to the temple to pray. 1A Pharisee,
the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not
like other men, and that's a red flag.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners,
unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I
possess. And the tax collector standing
afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but
beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a Sinner.
And Jesus commentary on this. Now I tell you, this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who
humbles himself will be exalted. Back to Matthew 5.
That is the unexpected blessing of God to the undeserved.
And this is the very idea Jesus opens with in verse 3 as we look
at these and we're going to walk through the Beatitudes.
Now blessed are the poor in spirit, verse 3.
For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
What does that mean? Poor in spirit?
It does not mean financially destitute, although God cares
for the materially poor. But you can also be poor and
wicked, can you not? Nor is it a false humility or a
a low self esteem that's generated within yourself.
It rather is a correct estimation of ourselves before a
holy and righteous God. It's this idea of knowing we are
spiritually bankrupt before God. We bring nothing to the table.
We have no moral riches. We have no merit in ourselves to
warrant any claim before God. We are undeserving, We are
helpless, defenceless, beggars in spiritual things,
unrighteous, unable to save ourselves or earn the Kingdom,
poor in spirits, spiritual bankruptcy.
Like the tax collector in Luke 18, who would not even lift his
eyes to heaven, beat his breast crying, God have mercy on me, a
Sinner. He had nothing to offer.
Unlike the Pharisee on the other side who had everything to
offer. Oh God, how good am I?
Let me tell you, he thought he had merit.
He thought he earned God's blessing.
But the Kingdom belongs to spiritual beggars with empty
hands. This fulfils Isaiah chapter 66
verses one and two. Thus says the Lord, Heaven is my
throne, earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will
build me, and where is the place of my rest?
To the people of Israel, who thought that they had done
wonderful things for God. And so then now, because they've
done that, God was owing them. God says No.
For all these things my hand has made, and all those things
exist, says the Lord. But on this one I will look on
him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles
at my word. God looks to the humble and
contrite in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Jesus came again to help those who cannot help themselves.
That's what Jesus meant later when he spoke of approaching the
Kingdom as of a child. Many think of it as an approach
of childhood, sort of innocence and naivety rather in
understanding the culture of the time concerning children.
They had no rights to anything at all back then, no claim to
anything, no history of success, no merit, nothing deserving of
acceptance. So they would come to Jesus
bringing nothing for them to be able to lay claim to.
Well, of course Jesus will accept me because I have done
this, that or the other. It's the realisation, poor in
spirit, that I am nothing, I have nothing, I deserve nothing,
I am poor in spirit before you, God have mercy please on me.
Let me try to give you an illustration somewhat.
Imagine merging bank accounts with the richest person on
earth, Elon Musk, estimated to have a fortune of some $830
billion. What do you bring to such a
relationship? Nothing.
He brings everything.
That's the poor in spirit. We come to the Kingdom, we come
to God empty handed, and Jesus brings the fullness of the
riches of His grace. It was the Canaanite woman later
in Matthew 15 when we get to that, who will model this
beautifully when as an outsider she cries out for mercy from
God, for healing for her demon possessed daughter.
And Jesus tests her and he says that I've come first to Israel.
It's not right to give the children's bread to the dogs.
And she doesn't argue entitlement or how rude and
respond with debate, but in humble poverty of spiritual
replies. Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from their Master's table.
And Jesus marvels and he says of her, O woman, how great is your
faith? That's poor in spirit and the
Kingdom of heaven belongs to such.
Verse 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for
they shall be comforted. We assume in today's society
that those who are blessed are always smiling, always
celebrating. Wow.
Just look at their Instagram and she's at this party and he's had
that happen and they seem to always be on vacation.
He just got that promotion and their kid just got that award.
And why can't you get those awards?
Look at the new car that they're driving.
And we assume that those who are blessed are the ones who are
always celebrating, who are always enjoying prosperity.
But there's a different logic that Jesus brings.
Jesus says those who mourn over their sin and over the
brokenness of the world will be comforted, will be blessed.
They've realised who they are in their spiritual poverty and it's
broken them that they mourn. Now this is not a command to
make yourself miserable. There's not a deservedness nor
merit to being a sad Sam all throughout.
But it's a morning that is right in the sense of understanding
that God, I come to you broken in spirit, realising that I
cannot help myself and that I need you and I'm broken and I'm
I'm messed up. Life has been cruel in this way
and in this regard and and in this way Jesus fulfils Isaiah 61
verses one to three. Let me read out and Jesus would
actually quote this when speaking in the synagogue on one
occasion. He says the spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good
tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the
broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives in the
opening of the prison, to those who are bound, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.
To comfort all who mourn. To console those who mourn in
Zion. To give them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.
Blessed are those who mourn, but they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, verse 5 for they shall inherit the earth
in a dog eat dog world, in a survival of the fittest.
We expect that at the end that it's the strong and the
aggressive Who Will Win, who will inherit the earth.
That's after all the evolutionary mindset of the
world. He who dies with the most toys
wins. Blessed are the aggressive might
be the way that the world would rewrite this beatitude, for they
shall get what they deserve. But Jesus says no, the meek.
Blessed are the meek, the gentle, the humble.
Those who do not grasp for power, they, they will inherit
the earth. This echoes Psalm 37.
The meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in
abundant peace. Oh yeah, the strong might win
for a season, but God has the last word, meekness here.
Understand it's not weakness, it's not passivity, it's not
being a doormat. It is strength by way of
definition. It is strength under control.
It's the analogy. It's been used a lot, maybe many
of you have heard it, like a a powerful stallion, broken and
now rideable, responsive to its master, power under control.
And here that power, that meekness flows out of poverty,
of spirit and mourning. The one who knows who God is and
who we are as sinners saved by grace, then relates differently
to others, is meek, is no longer lashing out and demanding what
they deserve, what they've earned and not asserting
themselves aggressively or despising the weak, but now
becomes considerate and gentle, submissive to God's Providence,
quick to forgive. Why?
Because we've been forgiven much.
Moses is a great Old Testament example of this where once
impulsive lashing out. It's said of him became the
meekest man on earth after some wilderness training.
The book of Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 Bible commentator
Matthew Henry says of Moses in this moment a lion in God's
cause, a lamb in his own Jesus himself.
Matthew 11 verse 29 will say, learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly of heart. And yet he cleansed the temple.
Yet he confronted the religious hypocrites with holy boldness.
Meekness abdicates self interest for the sake of others and for
God's glory. Do you remember Abraham in the
Old Testament in Genesis chapter 13 when some feuding broke out
between his servants and the servants of his nephew in Lot as
the patriarch, as the rightful leader, Abraham, he could have
insisted when looking out and saying pick where you would go.
He's he. He by right could have said no,
Lot, I will pick the best land for myself and for my people,
and that's where we'll go. And Lot, you know, God help you,
but you'll have the the rest. Instead, in meekness, he let his
younger nephew and Lot choose. If you go to left, we'll go to
the right. Abraham again had the power, had
the position, the priority, but he chose not to stand in his
rights. And what he did in that was
trust God then to provide and to look after him.
And that controlled strength preserved peace in that moment
and allowed God to bless Abraham far beyond what Abraham could
have ever imagined. Because it's Abraham and his
descendants who will inherit the earth.
The six blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
That is, those who feel acute pain over unrighteousness, over
injustice in the world, both in the world around them and in
their own hearts from within, they, when they pursue God's
righteousness, will be filled. Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst for righteousness. You know, left to ourselves, we
cannot produce the righteousness that we crave, the justice that
we desire in this earth. And so as a consequence, we need
to and must look outside of ourselves, outside of humanity,
to God Himself. And we hunger and thirst.
We crave for His righteousness to come to this earth, for He's
justice to rule and to reign for Him to overcome what is reality
in this world? Evil.
Because this world is evil. There is unrighteousness, there
is injustice. We just have to again look at
what tragically occurred in our own NT this week.
Pain and hurt and harm damage, death.
The Kingdom, Jesus says, has come.
And one day I want to jump ahead to Revelation 7, verse 15 and
17. The promise is that the Lamb
Jesus himself will shepherd them, and they will hunger no
more, and they will thirst no more, and God will wipe away
every tear. There will be satisfaction.
Revelation 7, verse 15 and 17. Therefore they are before the
throne of God, serve him day and night in His temple, and he who
sits on the throne will dwell among them.
And they shall neither hunger verse 16 anymore nor thirst
anymore. The sun shall not strike them,
nor any heat for the Lamb, verse 17, who is in the midst of the
throne, will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of
waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, verse
7, for they shall receive mercy. Our world runs on ruthlessness,
on power, on payback. Mercy is often seen as weakness,
and yet in the Kingdom it is the merciful that received mercy
from God. Verse 8.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The world in which we live is not concerned with purity.
It operates by deceitfulness. The ends justify the means and
so people cheat on each other on their taxes in sport, in life.
Consequently, people can't trust one another.
If you're pure in heart in this world, you're taken advantage
of. You're used and abused.
But the pure in heart, in the Kingdom of heaven, those
cleansed by grace and pursuing integrity, God promises blessing
and says they will see God. Verse 9, Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Our world is not about peace. Turn on the news.
Her world runs on conflict and war.
Peacemaking looks like losing. But those who make peace in the
Kingdom of heaven reflect the character of their heavenly
Father. They will be called sons of God.
And Jesus here brings good news in these verses we've just read
to the merciful, to the pure and to the peacemakers.
It would seem in a world back then, 1st century, Think of it,
Judea under the Roman rule and oppression.
What were the Romans all about? Power and might and war and
conflict. Very much a world like ours that
it's those people, the pure in heart, the merciful, the
peacemakers who would be losing, taken advantage of.
But the Kingdom is come, the Kingdom of heaven is here and
everything is different. Jesus says it's unexpected, it's
to the undeserved. And again, this is not a call to
work on these things in our lives.
It's a pronouncement of grace. I have come to rescue you.
I've come to help those who cannot help themselves.
And finally, verses 10 to 12, Blessed are those who have been
persecuted for the sake of righteousness, 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, be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets who were, who were
before you. Jesus here is bringing good
news. That's what the gospel means.
Gospel is good news as he speaks directly to the disciples
gathered and and those multitudes overhearing those who
appear to be losing the Kingdom of earth, the insulted, the
opposed, the slandered, the persecuted because of him.
Their reward, Jesus says in heaven, is great.
Now there's so much more on the Beatitudes and, and maybe at a
later point we might dig in with a little bit more.
But tonight, as we finish, what are we to do with this good
news? So what do we make of this?
First, may I encourage you stop treating the Beatitudes like a
spiritual scorecard or checklist?
Maybe even as we've been reading, you've probably been
doing this subconsciously. I'm going to read this because
I've probably earned some kind of a blessing in some way.
Yes, Let me have a look. Well, persecuted, certainly not
persecuted. I live in Australia, so I really
can't count that one. Pure in heart.
Let me go there. Oh no.
If everyone knew what I thought, what I did.
No, I'm not getting that one. Merciful.
Yeah, I think I'm pretty merciful.
It's pretty nice to that guy. The other day, that Lady that
cut me off in traffic, I was pretty cool to her.
Merciful Peacemaker. Yes, that's me.
Why can't we just all get along? Mourn meek and on and on we go,
right mentally kind of ticking boxes through it, trying to see
which ones we qualify for and and which ones we don't.
And we're missing the point. We're starting to go into a a
merit and an earning and I deserve blessing.
And this is exactly what we're not supposed to do with this
passage. It's not a a list telling us the
way to achieve and to work in order to earn God's blessing.
It is a beautiful summation of all the different, unexpected,
undeserving walks of life to whom God has sent His only
begotten Son, so that we might have forgiveness, so that we
might have deliverance and a new way to to live, a new way to be
human in His Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven.
It is the good news that the dominant powers of the day back
then, and that the dominant powers of the world today don't
carry through to the end and succeed.
Succeed with because the Kingdom of heaven is here instead.
Here is what we're to do with this.
See ourselves here in a way where we find ourselves amongst
the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry,
the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, even the
persecuted, but knowing all the way through it that our
righteous deeds are like filthy rags.
Isaiah 64, verse 6. And as Paul said in Philippians
chapter 3 verse 8. Yet indeed I also count all
things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them as rubbish that literally there is dung that I
may gain Christ. The difference in spotting
yourself for some merit, some earning, as opposed to
identifying yourself in the way that I'm encouraging is to see
and know and understand that we don't have any merit on our own,
that we can't earn, that we don't achieve, that we have
nothing to lay claim to God owing us in any way, that we are
the unexpected, the undeserved ones.
And to again understand that God helps those who cannot help
themselves. That's you, that's me.
And to then understanding that, rejoice in that knowledge, don't
you think that these broken multitudes gathered there in
hearing Jesus words on this day and the Sermon of the Mount, the
sick and the struggling and the outcasts and those who had been
used and abused would have had their jaws drop to the ground in
hearing this. Wow, this is great news.
Because they thought that they would permanently be on the
outside. Because who can measure up to
the righteousness of the Pharisees?
Who can stand against the religious elite and the rulers
that study the law and the Torah and know the Scriptures inside
and out? And compared to them, Well,
we're nothing. But Jesus would bring them all
the way inside into the Kingdom of heaven.
Why? In and through and because of
His grace. His grace.
And there was likely a party on that mountain.
In hearing those words, there's hope there'll be some tough
words later on when we get into the Sermon on the Mount and some
later ones that might have broken that party.
But it is when we get to those how we're to respond to grace
and how we're to live in grace. But again, we'll get to them
later on in future sermons. Thirdly, tonight, hope in the
promises that we've just read through in the Beatitudes.
You see, the King who brings this unexpected blessing will
one day make all things new. He's promised that.
And he will satisfy every hunger, every thirst.
He will comfort every mourner. He will reward every faithful
servant, and then give thanks and praise.
Rest in His grace today. Tonight we simply receive it
with empty hands. I've got nothing to give you,
God, but I just receive gladly with a grateful heart, Jesus of
Nazareth, the king from the wrong family tree, born in a
stable, announced by a desert prophet.
This King has come, and he has brought unexpectedly the Kingdom
to people just like us, the unexpected and the undeserved.
Tonight, if you feel spiritually bankrupt, if you mourn your sin,
the state of the world in which we live, if you feel weak and
empty handed, you are exactly the person that Jesus came for.
The Kingdom of heaven is yours. Come to him, respond to him,
receive from him, and in that, let's rejoice, let's have hope
in our hearts. Let's worship the King who
blesses the undeserving with his lavish grace.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
tonight that your blessing is not reserved for the strong, for
the self sufficient, for the powerful, the mighty who think
that they are owed from You, but rather for the sinners, the
broken, the sufferers. Like us.
We come tonight poor in spirit, and we, arms open, receive your
unexpected grace, Your hands empty.
Please fill us tonight with your joy, with your hope, with great
gratitude, because of Jesus, in whose name we pray tonight.
Amen. Just to know you.