The Beatitudes | Matthew 5:1-12

Scripture

• Matthew 5:1–12

About this sermon

ntroduction: The last recorded words that Moses spoke to Israel were words of blessing. His final speech to them (the speech that preceded Joshua leading them into the promised land) ended with a beatitude. And that beatitude was a celebration of God’s grace to His people. ESV Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs." How blessed you are that the living God delivered you from Egypt! How blessed you are that the living God is your defense and your victory! How blessed you are that the living God pledges Himself to you and distinguishes you from your enemies! Israel, you are blessed. When we come to the sermon preached by the one who is like Moses, but infinitely greater than Moses, it begins with beatitudes. There is a declaration of blessing. It is a celebration of God’s grace to a people. The beatitudes celebrate a new kind of life. The beatitudes celebrate a new kind of freedom. The beatitudes celebrate a new hope. It is the blessedness of those who will be comforted, who inherit the earth, who will be satisfied, who will receive mercy, who will see God, who will be known at the sons of God. IT IS THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Col 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him These beatitudes describe the kind of character that is the fruit of that new creation. It is the kind of character that inherits God’s kingdom, and it is not explained by nature. It is very important to recognize that the sermon begins with affirmations not imperatives. What is being described is not a new moral course that is achieved by human effort, and worthy of human boasting, but instead a way of living that is the result OF LIVING. The poverty of spirit that is described is not found in unregenerate humanity. The kind of mourning described is not found in the natural man. The same can be said of every other quality in this list. THIS IS NOT THE CHARACTER FOUND IN THE NATURAL MAN. THIS IS THE CHARACTER PRODUCED WHERE ETERNAL LIFE IS FOUND IN THE SOUL OF THE MAN OR WOMAN OF GOD. • LIFE LIVED UNDER CHRIST’S REIGN IS GRACIOUS LIFE — YOU ARE BLESSED The word “blessed” (μακάριος) is not captured by the word “happy.” Happiness, as the English word is used, is often determined by the state of our circumstances. When the sun is shining. When the wind is blowing in a favorable direction. When things are turning out like we expected. Then we find ourselves happy. This word has to do with BEING PRIVILEGED. This word, in this context, has to do with DIVINE FAVOR. It speaks of someone who is blessed in the sense of spiritual prosperity. Someone who has been GRACED BY GOD. Someone who is in a spiritually enriched situation. It DOES include the idea of joy, but it is not a joy stationed in circumstances but in God. IN FACT (As. D.A. Carson points out) THE MOST PROMINENT IDEA MAY BE THE IDEA OF APPROVAL. This person, when viewed objectively, stands in a tremendous position, for he or she has been approved by God in gracious condescension. D.A. Carson — “Usually makarios describes the person who is singularly favored by God and therefore in some sense “happy”; but the word can apply to God (1 Ti 1:11; 6:15)…Attempts to make makarios mean “happy” and eulogētos “blessed” (Broadus) are therefore futile. Though both appear many times, both can apply to either God or man. It is difficult not to conclude that their common factor is approval: man “blesses” God, approving and praising him; God “blesses” man, approving him in gracious condescension. John Stott — “…it is seriously misleading to render makarios as simply ‘happy’. For happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus is making an objective judgment about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel like (‘happy’), but what God thinks of them and what on that account they are: they are ‘blessed’.” These people are approved by God, but God is the one who has produced what He approves. The emphasis of these descriptions is not on what you do but who you are, and in some cases even, what HAPPENS to you (vs.10). The message is clear — God has done something in your case that has changed everything. HE has placed you in this new position, and as a result, in a place of unique experiences, and He has given you a unique hope. THE REST OF THE SERMON WILL MAKE THE POINT THAT THIS RESULTS IN NEW RESPONSIBILITIES.

Topics

• Bible Study