Matthew 5:7-12 – The Sermon on the Mount – Beatitudes Pt 2

Last week, began the SOM, Matthew 5-7 – This is widely known as Jesus’ greatest sermon – Since chapter 3, both he and John the Baptist have had a singular message: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” – The SOM is Jesus telling his early followers what it looks to live in the Kingdom of Heaven – This first section, known as the Beatitudes (SUPREMELY BLESSED), are characteristics of people with a Kingdom identity – you don’t possess these characteristics in order to gain the Kingdom, It is because the Kingdom of Heaven is in you that you possess these characteristics – last week, first four statements – Blessed are Poor in Spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are Meek, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – These are all inner-workings, the result of a Kingdom identity

Today, We will look at last 4 – could make a case that these are all how Kingdom people interact with the world around them – Matthew 5:7-12

V7 – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” – What is mercy? It is having compassion on those deserving judgment, or not giving someone what they deserve – This is incredibly counter-cultural – It is common in our culture to desire that justice is served – I know that often my desire is to see justice carried out

Illus – I love action movies, things blowing up, high body count – but, as I was thinking about it, I love when the bad guy gets it in the end -  good movie maker makes you hate the bad guy, and desire that he gets what he deserves - But here Jesus is saying, “have compassion on the bad guy” – Not a movie I want to watch, yet it’s the life I am called to live – something in my heart is thirsty for justice – not that justice is a bad thing, but Jesus is clearly after something different

This is a them that runs through the SOM – Matthew 6:14, If you forgive, you will be forgiven – Matthew 7:1, do not judge or you too will be judged – What is Jesus trying to get across here? We are ALL in need of MERCY! It is the essence of the gospel – goes back to the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” – If you can’t see that you are completely spiritually bankrupt and in need of God’s mercy in your life, then you will not likely show compassion on others – Matthew 18:21-25 – Parable of unmerciful servant – owed the king, cost was his family – he begged for patience to pay it back over time and the king acquiesced. Servant left and found fellow servant who owed him money – began to choke him –“pay it back!” had him thrown in jail until he could pay it back 

Here is the bottom line: you will never be able to fully give mercy until you’ve fully embraced the mercy you have received. Because of sin, justice had to be served – but God, in a great show of MERCY, gave up Jesus to pay for sin, something we could never pay for on our own – My friend Jamie Winship says that in the KOG, “it’s not about what you do but what you receive” – If you have not fully embraced the mercy you have received, you will not have capacity to give it

V8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” - Heart is center of who you are – represents the totality of your will, emotion, personality, character – So, here Jesus is saying, “Happy is the one who is seeking to keep your heart free from sin.” Again, impossible without Jesus, but speaks more to the desire to be clean, or holy (like Jesus) – speaks to motivation

• Prov. 4:23 – guard your heart, because everything flows from it
• Psalm 51:10 – Create in me a clean heart, O God
• Prov 23:7 – As a man thinks in his heart, so is he – 
• Psalm 24:3-5 – who may ascend, stand (see God)? Clean hands and pure heart…they receive BLESSING from the Lord

Here is how I want us to think about being pure in heart – if I take a glass of dirty water and put it under a faucet, and let it flood the glass, eventually all of the dirty water gets flushed out – picture of our heart – again, think about progression – impoverished spirit, mourning over sin – repentance – thinking in a new way, walking in quiet strength and becoming more hungry for the things of God – filled – and if filled to overflowing, gets rid of impurities, changes way we interact with the world – and result is we SEE GOD! How cool is that? 

Challenge – most of us get to the point of “good enough”, “free enough,” “clean enough” – If not mourning over sin, we are allowing impurity to remain – clouds our life – can’t see, hear or understand God is willfully holding onto sin, clouds how we see the world, clouds our motives, our interactions with others – enemy uses past against us – reality, in Jesus we are pure, new creation – 2 Cor. 5:17

V9 – “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” – important to differentiate between peacekeeping and peacemaking – peacekeeping is passive and often self-protective – in fact, when keeping the peace, you are often not being honest, so it is actually a false sense of peace – peacemaking is active, and is rooted in truth and contentment – and it all begins with being peace-filled – when you are filled with peace, you will likely promote peace in the lives of others around you – Hebrews 12:14 - When people are around you, do they feel more at peace or less? 

For evaluative purposes, there are those who pour gasoline on a fire, and those who pour water, meaning some stoke the fires of drama and discontentedness in conflict while others seek to resolve conflict and diffuse dramatic situations – In an election year, how will you interact with those with opposing views – if peacemaker, you have respectful discourse, even in disagreement, and honor the person in spite of a differing view, instead of name-calling and stirring up discord because you don’t agree

Spiritually, peacemaking is not cheap – in fact, it came at a great cost to Jesus – Colossians 1:20, “…Made peace through his blood, shed on the cross” -  this speaks to self-denial, willing to lay down your life for the sake of peace – Are you willing to do whatever is necessary for the sake of peace?

Peacemakers are called children of God – Why? Because when you are active in peacemaking, you look like Jesus

V10-12 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” – This is a cash of two value systems, the world-view vs a Kingdom view – Jesus is saying that the righteousness you hunger and thirst for will be the very thing that people will use against you – We talk about this a lot, but the entire subtext of the Bible is suffering, and Jesus is saying that being persecuted, misunderstood, made fun of is every bit the mark of a follower of Jesus as being pure in heart and a peacemaker - 2 Timothy 3:12, expect persecution – in fact, be surprised if and when you are not – 

While American followers of Jesus are not being martyred for their faith like people in other parts of the world, you will be at least misunderstood if you follow the value system of the Kingdom – Today, if you stand for anything from a biblical world-view, you can expect to be called exclusive, a bigot, close-minded

But what does Jesus say? REJOICE AND BE GLAD! This makes no sense in the natural – this is James 1:2 – “Consider it JOY when you encounter trials…” – Jesus says that your reward is ETERNAL – The reward for blending with the culture is a false sense of peace, but the Kingdom reward comes from living a counter-cultural life

So, we see the internal and external characteristics of life in the Kingdom – 

First four (Internal):

• Poor in Spirit
• Mourn
• Meek
• Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Second Four (External)

• Merciful
• Pure in Heart
• Peacemaker
• Persecuted 

Note: none of this is possible without Jesus – it is the inner-working of the Spirit of Jesus that creates these characteristics – not a list to work on, but a life to pursue in the Secret Place – if these are not evident in your life, go back to the source - Is Jesus your life? Galatians 2:20