Matthew 5:1-12

Please take your seats and turn, if you will, in your copies of God's Word to Matthew 5.

! The passage that was read for us a few moments ago.

! The Sermon on the Mount.

The word sermon certainly has negative connotations today.

Certainly that's the case outside the church, but also increasingly inside the church as well.

You can attend lots of churches across this country that

say that they believe the Bible, are committed to the Bible, and are committed to sermons.

They don't like the Word, so they call them Bible talks or that kind of thing.

We say, you see, we're told at least that we don't like the format.

But a monologue delivered with instruction about what to do, delivered with authority.

We say that, and yet there has been an explosion across the world in the popularity of monologues,

delivered with authority, telling you how to do certain things.

From TED Talks, to podcasts, to vodcasts and vlogs and all those other things.

The entire product is a person speaking with authority, telling you what to do.

And people are signing up for this, left, right, and center.

In the corporate world, actually, people will pay thousands of pounds to have their preacher

of choice come and deliver their sermon.

I think part of the growth of that is an acknowledgement that we need help in order to live well in this

world.

The current trending topics on TED, how to rebuild a broken state, what makes a good life,

lessons from the longest study on happiness.

My podcast feed, recent podcasts, Unlocking the Science of Longevity, 19 Harsh Truths About Human Nature,

Italy's Forgotten Reformation.

That one's not so popular.

It didn't have so many downloads.

These and other themes downloaded thousands, even millions of times.

What makes a good life?

Lessons from the longest study on happiness.

Forty-five million people have watched that.

We're willing to listen because we know we don't have all the answers to living well in the world.

Now, there are voices everywhere.

With all of these voices around us, preaching the sermons that they have to offer.

How do we decide which speaker to listen to?

We decide, I think, on the basis of two categories.

The first is the credibility of the speaker.

And the second is the relevance of the topic.

We'll listen to somebody that we think has something important to say,

and we'll listen if we think that their topic has something important to say to us.

Now, there may be other reasons why we would listen, but these, I think, are the main ones.

So, as we turn to our passage this morning, to something as well known as the Sermon on the Mount,

there is a danger that we might think initially, well, we know what it says.

It's really familiar in the life of the church and also actually in our culture.

Judge not lest ye be judged.

You know, back in the 300 odd years ago, that's how people spoke.

Those kinds of phrases are part of discourse.

We think we know what it says.

Or, of course, you might be here this morning.

You're standing, as it were, looking into the Christian faith.

You're assessing what you think of it, and you don't care what it says, actually,

because it belongs to a religious world, and you're not really that interested in it.

But consider the speaker for a moment.

It's Jesus.

Okay, that might be enough for most of us, I suspect, this morning.

We know that Jesus is a good man to listen to.

But I want you to see that Matthew has actually taken time up to this point in his gospel

to establish Jesus' credibility in everything that he has said so far.

He could have actually started his gospel at chapter 5, verse 1.

Jesus sitting down to preach this sermon.

But he didn't do that.

We're five chapters in.

He started in chapter 1 by taking time to tell us about Jesus' birth

and how he is descended from King David.

In chapter 2, he's recognized by King Herod as a threat to his sovereignty.

And so he has to be taken away to safety.

Herod wants to get rid of him.

Chapter 3, when he's baptized, you remember that voice from heaven?

Declares him to be,

This is my son.

He is the Son of God.

But it is that title that was ascribed to the king in Psalm 2.

And then in chapter 4, he's gone into the wilderness.

He has overcome the assault of Satan.

And he has gained power to announce with certainty.

Chapter 4, verse 17.

If you just look over back a few verses,

he is God's king, bringing in God's kingdom.

And he can declare that with authority.

And then just in case we're not sure,

at the end of chapter 4,

he demonstrates his power over sickness and affliction

by healing anybody who came near

to prove that he's God's king

and he's worth following.

So can you see, as he speaks,

Matthew has taken time to demonstrate the credibility

of the one who is speaking.

He wants us to know that Jesus is God's king.

And our passage this morning, the Beatitudes,

it is bookended by references to the kingdom.

Do you see verse 3?

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And at the end, verse 9,

persecuted for righteousness sake,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Here is the king speaking about his kingdom.

His kingdom in the present

and his kingdom as it will extend into the future.

But he isn't just shown to be God's king.

5 verse 1, it's significant that he's on a mountain.

He goes up to a mountain.

Why has Matthew told us that?

Because mountains in the Bible are also significant.

You can trace it all the way through.

Mountains are where God and man meet.

It's where life-shaking,

earth-shaking things happen.

The most notable example,

Mount Sinai.

Moses receives the law from God

and is tasked with making God's Word known.

The early readers of this,

we are supposed to read this

and we're supposed to hear an echo of that.

Here is God's ministry of revelation

being given to his king.

God's king bringing God's revelation.

Will you listen?

Matthew is teeing it up so that we will say,

here's somebody we should listen to.

And I want to suggest to you that

whatever you believe,

this sermon is for you.

Have a look again at verse 1.

Seeing the crowds,

Jesus went up on the mountain

and when he sat down,

his disciples came to him.

Two groups of people.

Crowds and disciples.

This isn't just a pep talk for religious folk.

Whatever you believe this morning,

you are in one of those two groups.

You're either in the crowds,

looking on,

assessing what you make of Jesus,

but not yet committed to him.

Or you are a disciple.

You are someone who follows him.

I want you to see

that the Sermon on the Mount is for you.

Whoever you are,

whatever you believe,

wherever you've come from,

the Sermon on the Mount is for you.

But I want to suggest

that that's especially the case

when we consider the second category.

The second category

by where we assess

whether or not we listen,

and that is the relevance of the topic.

The relevance is repeated nine times

in those verses.

Now, later in the Sermon on the Mount,

Jesus will go on to speak

of issues of anger and lust

and divorce,

honesty, truth, money,

anxiety, and wisdom.

All very relevant.

Who doesn't need help in these areas?

We all do.

That's what drives

the self-help downloads.

That's why people listen.

He's speaking to these issues.

But the repeated word,

it's as plain as a nose in your face,

the repeated word is blessed.

Jesus starts the Sermon

talking about the blessing of God.

Now, I want to suggest

that there is nothing more relevant

to any of us than that.

This is something that we all of us long for.

This is something that in the deepest parts

of our being,

we desire to live in the favor

and acceptance of God.

And the reason for that is,

that is what we were made for.

That is why you were created,

to live in the love and the favor

and the acceptance of God.

The restlessness in your heart and mine

was made to find peace only

in one place,

and that is in relationship

with the God who made you.

Now, Christians have done a good job

of making the blessed word

sound a bit bland

or worse, perhaps a bit cliche.

Well, I was blessed.

That was a real blessing.

Oh, I'm blessed.

There was a time when hashtag blessed

was a thing in social media.

What that does is

it completely evacuates

the word of its substance.

Now, partly that overuse,

I mean, it's okay to use it

if you're feeling that, you know,

God has blessed you

in a particular way, of course,

that's the right language to use,

but it's important

that we don't just see it as a cliche.

Part of the reason, though,

why we've kind of got confused about it

is because the original word

in the Greek, makarios,

is hard to translate across to English

in a way that captures

the full sense of the word.

It has a breadth of meaning.

It can mean happy.

It can mean fortunate or favored.

And there's a sense of each of those here.

But if we bring together

how the word is used

all the way through the Bible

and its Hebrew equivalent

in the Old Testament,

with the context of the day

in which this gospel was written,

the Greek wisdom, virtue,

tradition of the day,

and we consider the future focus

that the sermon has,

the New Testament scholar

Jonathan Pennington argues

that the best translation

is flourishing.

Flourishing.

So I want to suggest

that what Jesus is doing

in this sermon

is holding out a vision

of the good life.

Here is the good life.

That is what those restless hearts

that we have are looking for.

Isn't that what the advertisers

are trying to sell us?

Isn't that why they spend

billions and billions of pounds

to try and project a vision

of something that their product

will give us,

the good life?

If you have this thing,

then you'll be happy.

Then you'll be blessed.

Next,

this morning,

God's King is our speaker

and He gives us both

a description of

and an invitation

into this life of flourishing

that characterizes

the kingdom of God.

Two points.

Point number one,

description,

a description of true flourishing.

Now, I don't know

how you've approached

the Beatitudes in the past.

Perhaps you've thought about them

as a standard to reach.

If I can become meek,

well then I'll inherit the earth.

It's a kind of ladder

from your repentance

all the way up to perfection.

You think you can do that

and you think that

that's the way you should

kind of aim to apply them

into your life

or perhaps more likely

if you're like me,

you'll see them

as an impossible standard

that you can't reach.

That would be the way

I would lean.

And then it leaves you in despair.

So you look at them

and you think,

if I can become meek

then I'll inherit the earth.

I'm going to get after that

and I'm definitely going to succeed.

Or you think,

if I can become meek

then I'll inherit the earth.

And you think,

I'll never become meek.

Oh, well, there's nothing here for me.

But the Beatitudes,

I want to suggest,

are not at first

statements of what we are to do.

They are a description

of what we are in Christ.

They are a description

of the character

of a true disciple.

They are a declaration,

if you like,

of our status

in this new kingdom

that Jesus has brought in.

Think of it like this.

Jesus is looking at you

and He's pointing

and He's saying,

flourishing.

Flourishing.

If you're in Christ,

He's saying,

this is the good life.

Now that's a shock,

isn't it?

It's a shock

because what He describes

as flourishing

isn't what we think

when the Word is mentioned.

Verse 3,

flourishing

are the poor in spirit.

Poor in spirit

isn't talking about

the state of our bank accounts.

It's talking about

poverty of spirit

in relation to

how you view yourself

and how you view God.

The confession of sin

that we used earlier

on page 3 of the handout,

I commend that to you.

Take that home,

stick it on your fridge,

and meditate on that

this week.

Those are great descriptions

of what these things mean.

Each of the Beatitudes.

I'm sure Paul came up

with that himself.

It looks like all his own work.

Those are good things

to meditate on.

Expand the descriptions

of what I'm talking about here.

But poverty of spirit

is about how you relate

in terms of your view

of yourself and of God.

It's a recognition

that we are dust.

And we're fully dependent

on others.

And ultimately,

fully dependent on God

for our existence.

Look, we like to think

of ourselves as self-sufficient.

What did it say?

We confessed it earlier.

We have been proud in spirit

and flitted with our own

self-sufficiency.

If there is a cardinal virtue

in 21st century Westernism,

it is...

Western culture,

Westernism,

is that a thing?

Anyway,

it is self-sufficiency.

Listen to any number

of those self-help downloads,

and they are all about

becoming strong in yourself

on the basis of thinking

more sort of positively

about things

or adopting particular ways

of life

so that you can present

in a way that is

more self-sufficient.

The one thing in life

that should take the feet

out from under us

on that thought

is thinking about sleep.

When you go to bed at night,

I know some of you

with little ones

would love to be able

to think about sleep.

You dream about sleep.

It's all you think about.

But if you think about

what's actually happening,

you have no control.

You close your eyes

and you trust yourself

to the sovereign care of God.

Sleep is an act of worship.

God keeps your heart going.

God gives you every breath

through the night.

You're not even aware

that it's happening.

And He's the one

that opens your eyes

in the morning

if they open.

Poverty of spirit

acknowledges that debt.

We are dependent

when we're little.

Boys and girls,

you're dependent

on your parents

for everything.

As we grow,

we're always dependent

on others.

And ultimately,

we're dependent

on our God.

Poverty of spirit

acknowledges that debt.

And it recognizes

even more than that

that it goes deeper.

The debt is deeper.

In fact,

it goes to the point

of bankruptcy

before God

because of our sin.

Here's the thing.

When we see others,

when we see ourselves

like that,

it changes the way

that we see others.

We don't look up.

We don't look down

because we're not proud.

Flourishing are the poor

in spirit.

Verse 4,

Flourishing are those

who mourn.

This isn't just a word

to the bereaved.

That wouldn't make sense

ultimately in the context.

But the background here

is Isaiah 61

where the people of God

are mourning.

They're mourning

over their sin

and the consequences

of that sin.

and they are longing

for the future

that God has promised them.

Christians don't pretend

that their lives

are all together.

Christians don't hide

from the consequences

of sin

or shift the blame

for those things

to other people.

We lean into repentance.

That's what it means

to be a Christian.

You are a repenting person

which in turn invites

the blessing of God.

Verse 5,

Flourishing are the meek.

This word is used

in Psalm 37

where the meek are those

who wait for the Lord

when times are hard.

In the midst of struggle,

we wait for You, Lord.

We look to You, Lord.

We don't try and take matters

into our own hands.

We accept God's providence

in the pain

and we look to Him.

Meekness is releasing

your grip

on your means

and your connections

and your self-sufficiency

and looking to God.

Jesus describes

those who are marked

by these traits

as flourishing.

It might not look like it

to others.

It might not always

feel like it to us.

But that is how Jesus

describes you

if you're in relationship

with Him.

And the reason for this

is seen in the second half

of each of those verses.

The first half of each

beatitude can't be separated

from the second.

The reason those who are

poor in spirit

are flourishing

is because they are

citizens of the kingdom.

The reason those who mourn

are flourishing

is because they enjoy

the comfort of God,

the nearness of His care,

and the certainty

of those things

in their fullness

on that future day

in glory.

The reason that the meek

are flourishing

is because they know

their place

before a holy God.

And however hard

things get,

they wait on His

good providence

knowing that one day

they will inherit

the earth.

What an inheritance!

And so it goes

with each of the Beatitudes.

When you look at all

that is not right

with the world

and you groan,

oh, come Lord Jesus.

When you see poverty

and injustice

on your news feed

and your heart

breaks another bit,

when you decide

in life

that you're going

to set aside

your ego

and submit yourself

to the providence

of God in your life,

you are flourishing

in His sight.

That is actually

what it looks like

to hunger and thirst

for righteousness.

To grieve

and mourn

over sin

in your own life

and in the world.

To submit your life

to God's providential care.

And to pray

and long

for that future day

in glory.

That is what it looks like

to hunger and thirst

for righteousness.

And so,

because of that,

as a citizen of the kingdom,

one day

you will be satisfied.

One day,

God's righteousness,

that day when God's righteousness

reigns in all things,

all your discontent

will vanish.

The pure in heart

will see God.

And the peacemakers

will be called

sons of God.

When you are

a citizen of the kingdom

through faith

in Jesus Christ,

these qualities,

these characteristics

will mark your life.

We want to see them grow.

We want to nurture them.

We want to cultivate them

by faith.

But they will mark your life.

And though,

we see it increasingly,

the culture will despise you.

Let's be honest.

Who looks at poverty of spirit?

Who looks at mourning over sin?

Who looks at pursuing

a pure heart

and thinks that you're

living your best life?

Who in our culture

goes yay

to all those things?

Very few.

So we're despised

for living like this.

But look again.

Even that

is a mark of flourishing.

Verse 10.

It's the one characteristic

that Jesus repeats

probably because

it's so hard to believe.

Blessed are those

who are persecuted

for righteousness' sake,

for theirs is

the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you

when others 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.

That looks like madness

to the world.

Jonathan Pennington

says this,

Is there any worse suffering

than being attacked

and slandered

and being cut off

from community

precisely when one

is innocent,

true,

and living according

to God's righteousness?

No.

Yet Jesus claims

this is true flourishing

because these are

the inheritors

of God's kingdom

and recipients

of a great reward.

Because of this

true promise,

those suffering

in this state

can actually rejoice

and be glad

and have a taste

of flourishing now.

Do you see how encouraging

and how strengthening

this is?

In the face of persecution,

you can rejoice.

Not just grit your teeth.

Not just,

oh, I've got to get through this.

But rejoice.

Rejoice.

At school,

when you get a hard time

from those around you

because you're a Christian.

When those in your class

laugh at you

and mock you

because of your Christian views.

Rejoice.

Smile.

Thank them for their assault.

When you get disciplined

and work because you won't

join in the great

pronoun delusion.

Or you're just going

about your business

perfectly happy

with the lanyard

that you always use.

And now you've been

called into a meeting

with HR.

Rejoice.

It sounds crazy.

But Jesus is saying,

and we need to remember this

in these days,

Jesus is saying

that in His economy,

a life lived

in the pursuit

of righteousness

is a flourishing,

blessed life.

This is what it means

for you to be

the person

that you were created to be.

Even in the struggle,

this is what it means

for you to be

the person

that God wants you

to be where you are

as you live

for the age to come.

So the Beatitudes

are a description

of true flourishing.

But they're not just that.

Their positioning

in the sermon

and the evocative way,

I suppose,

that they describe

the life of the kingdom,

it serves to draw us in.

We're supposed to

read these things

and to choose this life

and to pursue

and to grow

in these qualities

more and more.

They're there

to draw us in

to say,

come, come, come.

This is the good life.

So in that sense,

they serve as,

secondly,

point number two,

an invitation

into true flourishing.

If they, first of all,

are a description of it,

secondly,

they are an invitation

into true flourishing.

Jesus is calling us

into a way of life.

What He's doing,

He's showing us

a kingdom

where there is comfort,

an amazing inheritance,

satisfaction,

mercy,

and joy

in knowing

and seeing God.

It is a spectacular vision

of a life

that is good

in the truest sense

of the word.

Now, there is

a present aspect

to this.

You become a citizen

of God's kingdom

when you humble yourself

before Him,

when you put your faith

in His Son,

when you receive

His salvation.

At that point,

yours is the kingdom

of heaven.

At that point,

you see God

by faith.

In fact,

speaking of that

present experience,

Sinclair Ferguson,

he describes

his experience

of knowing

the peace of God

and then seeking

to be a peacemaker

himself.

He says this,

quote,

I frequently experience

this at the Lord's Supper.

I don't think

it's a strange

Scottish emotion,

but because at the Lord's Supper

we have these

physical expressions,

physical expressions

that through Jesus Christ

we have peace with God

and we've been reconciled

to Him.

What I would like to do

at the end of the service

is just to go around

the congregation

hugging everyone

and saying to them,

let's live in this peace.

If you have anything

against me,

pardon me.

If I have anything

against you,

I freely forgive you.

We have tasted this peace

and so we want to become

peacemakers.

I like that.

When we gather in worship,

as we do like this

this morning,

we do get a foretaste

of these things.

When we come to the Lord's

table in particular,

that sense of putting

right wrongs before we come,

that sense of being united

as one body,

we do taste those things.

And yet,

it will always have a sense

of feeling incomplete.

Because our full experience

of this flourishing,

your full experience

of your sonship,

lies in the future.

There is a tension

until Christ consummates

His kingdom

and sets the world

to rights.

And that's why

this point

is so important.

Because between now and then,

there is a struggle.

There is hardship

and persecution.

Verses 10 and 11.

Because these values

contrast sharply

with the values

of the world

that we live in.

I've said already,

our society encourages

self-promotion.

We are champions

of self-confidence.

We live in a culture

that is increasingly proud

and harsh

and ambitious

and self-serving.

And the invitation

into the kingdom

and to a life of flourishing

is an invitation

to self-denial.

Each of these traits,

each of these qualities

and characteristics

reflect the same

selfless attitude.

Indeed, there is something

of a flow.

Did you notice that

as you go through?

Blessed are the poor

in spirit.

As you see yourself

accurately before God,

what happens?

You mourn

for your sin.

It's part of why

the worship service

is organized

the way that it is.

We sing these songs

of the majesty

and the character

and the perfection

of God.

And what does that do?

It causes us

to see ourselves

as we truly are.

And so we move

to confess our sins.

We mourn

when we are poor

in spirit.

And as you mourn

for your sin,

there's a makeness

then

that grows up.

And a right makeness

is characterized

by a desire

to live a righteous life.

That's what happens,

isn't it?

When we mourn

over our sin,

we resolve

with God's help

to hunger

and thirst

for righteousness,

to live differently,

to put that sin

to death.

What then happens

is that knowing

in Christ

that we've been given

the righteousness

of God

as a gift,

we look at ourselves

and we think,

oh, there I go again.

I've failed again.

And Christ says,

you're righteous

in me.

I give this to you

as a gift.

God made Him

who had no sin

to be sin for us

so that in Him

we might become

the righteousness

of God.

When you know

that you've been given

that right standing

as a gift,

when you know

that you've experienced

His mercy,

it makes you

a merciful person

to others,

makes you one

who longs

to live

to please God.

That is,

gives you a pure heart.

Such a person

having given peace

with God

through Christ

will live,

will seek to live

at peace with others

and want others

to know this peace,

even those

who persecute them.

Here is the paradox

of the kingdom,

the path

of true flourishing.

is walked

in selflessness.

Get yourself

out of the way.

At home,

in your relationships,

in work,

get off the me train.

So difficult,

the culture is telling us

to go completely

the opposite way.

Live for yourself.

That's where

true flourishing lies.

Put yourself

at the center

of everything.

No!

That is the way

to dissatisfaction

and death.

Get yourself

out of the way.

And the more

that we embrace

this pattern

for our lives,

the more

we will flourish.

flourish.

And here's the reason

that we know this.

Because the most

fully human person

that has ever lived,

the most vivid

example of human

flourishing

that has ever been

was the one

who embodied

these beatitudes

perfectly.

The Lord Jesus Christ,

the one who was

gentle and lowly

in heart.

That's meekness.

The one who humbled

himself down

from heaven

to earth

in order to win

peace with God

for all

who would trust Him.

To live

like this

is to live

like Jesus.

And that is to live

therefore in the

epicenter

of the blessing

of God.

It is to live

life in all

its fullness.

But also,

inevitably,

it is to live

life in the

crosshairs

of persecution.

We've touched

on it already.

Belonging to Jesus

means that we

should expect

to suffer

as He did.

And the question

is,

are you prepared

for this?

Does your

Christian life

have a category

marked

obedience

no matter

what the cost?

Or a category

marked

conviction

no matter

what they

say?

This is where

the Beatitudes

end.

And on the one

hand,

it's the hardest

bit to stomach,

but on the other

hand,

I want us to see

that these verses

put steel in our

spine as we

seek to live

for Christ

in our day,

wherever He

has placed us.

When you're

misrepresented,

when you are

reviled,

when you're

lied about

because you

follow Christ,

you do not

need to worry.

It was this

way for the

prophets,

it was this

way for Christ

Himself,

and it will

be this

way for all

who will

flourish in

the sight

of God.

So rejoice.

When you

get a hard

time because

you say

or do

dumb

things,

don't rejoice.

Change

your behavior.

He's not

talking about

that.

But when you

get a hard

time from

your colleagues

or your

friends,

even your

family,

because you

are living

your life

for Jesus,

give the

burden of

it to

the Lord.

And remember

his verdict

on this

situation.

Blessed.

You're

flourishing.

He has

you where

he wants

you.

It's

okay.

And we

will only do

this if we

place our

happiness

beyond this

world.

If we

calibrate our

definition of

flourishing to

Christ's.

You know,

if we think

flourishing involves

having a

lifestyle that

our magazine

or the blog

or the

Instagram feed

of choice

preaches to

us about,

if we're

getting our

definition of

flourishing from

the sermons that

come to us

that way,

then joy will

always,

always elude

us.

It'll come

and it'll

go.

Because when

we get some

of it,

it won't

satisfy and

when trials

come,

they will

crush us.

Because we

think flourishing

is this

picture that's

normally always

made up.

But if we

see flourishing,

if we calibrate

our definition

of flourishing

to Christ's

as these

qualities of

the soul,

not as

external things

that we might

want to have,

but as

qualities of

the soul,

we can rejoice

whatever is

going on around

us.

However hard

it is,

when we lose

our job,

or our

health,

or our

reputation,

or anything

else,

we don't

get defensive,

we don't

get angry,

and we

don't despair,

we receive it

from the Lord

with confidence,

and we can

even have

joy in the

midst of the

pain because

we know it's

from God's

good hand,

and it's

always,

always,

always,

only temporary.

There will

be,

in a little

while,

comfort,

satisfaction.

We'll see

God,

and nothing

else will

matter.

let's

pray.

Let's

pray.

Our

Father,

and our

God,

we praise

you.

for the

Lord Jesus

Christ,

and the

life of

flourishing

that he

has purchased

for us.

And amidst

confliction that

we feel with

our sinful

hearts,

with a world

that is opposed

to you,

and with all

of the

struggles of

life in a

broken world,

God,

we thank

you that in

obedience to

Christ,

in union

with him,

we have a

life of

true flourishing.

Help us to

live in the

light of that

this week,

we pray,

because we

ask it in

Jesus'

name.

Amen.

Let's

sing.

The church

is