Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #25 - Jesus and The Sermon On The Mount #1 Matthew 5:1-16 The Blessed

 

Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #25
Jesus and The Sermon On The Mount #1
Matthew 5:1-16 The Blessed

 

Introduction:

We have been tracking the Lord Jesus throughout scripture all this year and here we are at the end of July and we have arrived at the Sermon On The Mount, the Lord’s most famous and longest recorded sermon. We are going to take our time and camp here for a few Sundays, kind of like the Hebrews at Mt. Sinai, though I’m sure you’re hoping it won’t be for a full year as it was for them. For at least 3 – 4 weeks we are going to examine and gain a greater understanding this famous sermon that some say is to the Christian what the 10 commandments were to the Nation of Israel. We also need to camp here at the Mount and listen to the Lord teach, because the Sermon On the Mount is probably one of the most misunderstood and misapplied passages in all the Gospels.

There is a lot of interpretations of the Sermon and how it fits into the life of a New Testament child of God. The KJV Commentary makes this statement, “Liberalism taught that the keeping of the Sermon on the Mount was to be regarded as the message of the gospel. Thus it predicated a system of salvation by moral works. Some dispensationalists, at times, have tended to relegate everything related to the kingdom as being under the Old Testament dispensation, thus having no significant application to the church today. Still others recognize the truths within this kingdom message, but hold that its precepts are impossible to attain, thus nullifying its significance for the Christian.” - Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll, Eds., KJV Bible Commentary, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 1881–1882.

Waren Wiersbe said, “The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most misunderstood messages that Jesus ever gave. One group says it is God’s plan of salvation, that if we ever hope to go to heaven we must obey these rules. Another group calls it a “charter for world peace” and begs the nations of the earth to accept it. Still a third group tells us that the Sermon on the Mount does not apply to today, but that it will apply at some future time, perhaps during the Tribulation or the millennial kingdom.” – Warren Wiersbe

Truly the Sermon on The Mount, as familiar as it is, nevertheless is a difficult message. Like the parables it was meant for Jesus’ disciples, but with hooks that were meant to pull in the people of Israel, potential disciples and yes even us the Gentiles that weren’t even there yet. In order to understand what the Lord was preaching that day on the hills of Galilee, you must do more than just read it, you must study it, you must place it in context of the place, time, speaker and original hearers. Then after you have done that once, you must do it again and again and again for you are the listener now and if you are maturing as a child of God should, then as you grow the Sermon on the Mount has more height, depth and breadth each time you read it.

Finding a way to break down the sermon is also going to be a challenge. I thought about 3 sermons for 3 chapters, but there is just too much here. I’m still not sure how it will break down over the course of all the chapters but I am going to begin with the Beatitudes and the admonition of Jesus for his disciples to be salt and light in this world. So, we should cover Matthew 5:1-16 this morning. The Sermon On the Mount is also found in Luke 6 and in a couple of other places in his Gospel. It is the same Sermon, just with a different emphasis and audience, since Luke was a Gentile and was writing for a Gentile audience. Matthew 5-7 is the longer record and will give us the most to contemplate, interpret and apply in our own lives.  

The Setting

In Matthew 4 we read that when Jesus gave the Sermon he was being followed by huge crowds as he was preaching, teaching and healing all around the region of Galilee.

Matthew 4:23-25 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. 24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Then in chapter 5 Matthew gives us the introduction to the Sermon in verses 1-2, Matthew 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, …

In Luke’s account it says, Luke 6:17–18 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 18 And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed.

There is no contradiction here, especially if you could stand at the Sea of Galilee and look at the hills and mountains that surround it. Jesus went up on the mountain with his disciples and when he saw the multitudes that continued to follow, He came down to a level place on the side of the mountain. There the people could sit and listen while the higher part of the mountain behind Jesus would form a natural echo amplifier for the crowd.

Something else, very important, also happens at this time. If we look in the parallel passage in Mark 3:13-14 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. 14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach. In Luke 6:12-13 12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;

So here is our setting, just before the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus goes up to the mountain and prays all night to His Father in Heaven. The next day He calls his disciples and chooses 12 of them to be His apostles. This is the beginning of the ecclesia, the church. Now on the day of Pentecost this church, which had been organized for about 2 years, is fully empowered but it begins here right after an all-night prayer time with the Father and right before the Sermon On The Mount. That would be appropriate considering all that the Lord knew about the future and about the church. Pray for it and instruct it.

Jesus, now on the mountain, sees the crowds, calls His disciples close to him, names the Apostles then sits down and begins to teach. His audience is both people of the Nation of Israel at large but in particular the Apostles and disciples.

Until this time Jesus and John the Baptist have been preaching, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” Now Jesus is going to expand and explain that message by telling this audience who is fit for the Kingdom and giving the principles of those “Kingdom citizens.”

At this point, Jesus the future King of that Kingdom has not been rejected by Israel and so this sermon has the potential of being implemented during his earthly ministry, but as we know Israel rejects their Messiah, they call out for the crucifixion of the “King of the Jews” and as a nation they miss the opportunity for the physical Kingdom of Heaven to come in their lifetime and beyond.

But what of those who did accept Jesus as Savior, Messiah and King? Did they still miss the Kingdom of Heaven? No, they entered into it, but now, and until Jesus comes back, it is a spiritual kingdom. As Jesus said Luke 17:21 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

All that is for the future, right now Jesus is beginning the second year of His earthly ministry, the Year of Popularity as he sits down and begins the Sermon On The Mount. Now go to chapter 5 and vs. 3 and let’s listen.

Seven Times Blessed - Matthew 5:3-9

​3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

The Truth of Blessedness

These 7 verses form what we call the Beatitudes, which is taken from the Latin word for blessed, “beatus.” Jesus used it 7 times in these opening verses. So, it’s important that we understand what this word meant. When Jesus said, Blessed, what did his hearers understand that word to mean?

Wiersbe says, “To them it meant “divine joy and perfect happiness.” The word was not used for humans; it described the kind of joy experienced only by the gods…. “Blessed” implied an inner satisfaction and sufficiency that did not depend on outward circumstances for happiness.”

The Greek word here is μακαριοι, [makarioi]) is an adjective that means “happy.” But the Greek sense is much more than just positive emotions or how you feel when things are going your way. This is why in Latin it was beatus, and the KJV translators used the word, Blessed.

To us blessed is infinitely higher and sacred than just being happy.” But “happy” is actually the word that Jesus used seven times to begin His sermon. “Happy are the poor in spirit, happy are they that mourn, happy are they who hunger….

Jesus uses this word often we read in John 13:17  “If you know these things, happy (μακαριοι [makarioi]) are you if you do them”  or  in John 20:29 “Happy (μακαριοι [makarioi]) are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). In 1 Timothy 1:22, Paul applies this word to God himself, “according to the gospel of the glory of the happy (μακαριου [makariou]) God”.

Here in Matthew 5:3-9 the word is used 7 times. We know that 7 is the number of perfection or completeness and using it here signifies the completeness, the fulness of a relationship with Jesus Christ, the King of the Kingdom.

What we have in these verses is a description of a saved, born again, righteous believer, a citizen of the Kingdom of God.  A true disciple and follower of the Lord and the greatest characteristic of that person is….happiness. Call it joy, call it contentment, call it rapture, call it glory but it all comes down to an inner condition that comes from knowing Jesus as your Savior, Lord and friend and that cannot be changed or lost due to any outward condition or external circumstance.

Happiness And Jesus

Jesus said, in John 15:11 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

One of the purposes for Jesus coming to earth was to bring us to a higher plane of existence, a higher place of being, a better way of living, Here He called it being happy, blessed. Other places in the Bible it is called joy or as sounds more noble and higher to our ears, blessedness.

Now this isn’t anything like the world’s idea of mere happiness. The worlds idea is like the like the song, Don’t Worry Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin, this was popular wasn’t it? It was the first a cappella song to reach number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. Do you remember…

Here's a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry, be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy now

Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
(Don't worry)
Ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
(Be happy) and on and on and on it goes.

 Now I liked that song the first 100 times, I heard it, which was in less than 100 days, but after a while it grew pretty irksome. I got tired of hearing “Don’t worry be happy now” and that is a lot like the world’s happiness. It’s shallow, it has no depth, it can’t last and after awhile it brings just the opposite response. It has no more lasting effect or power than a silly, simple pop song.

Christian Happiness is More

It is like the Song we sing, “Happiness is the Lord” Sing it with me, I know you remember it.

Happiness Is To Know The Savior
Living A Life Within His Favor
Having A Change In My Behavior
Happiness Is The Lord!

Happiness Is A New Creation
Jesus And Me In Close Relation
Having A Part In His Salvation
Happiness Is The Lord!

Real Joy Is Mine
No Matter If Teardrops Start,
I’ve Found The Secret,
It’s Jesus In My Heart!

Happiness Is To Be Forgiven
Living The Life That Worth The Living
Taking A Trip That Leads To Heaven
Happiness Is The Lord,
Happiness Is The Lord,
Happiness Is The Lord!

 That song will have an effect in you, if you know the happiness that truly comes from knowing the King of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ. Ask yourself and be honest, did I experience that blessedness as I sang.

It doesn’t matter what is happening out here, because I know true happiness, true joy, true blessedness. I know it because I know Jesus. I’m in the spiritual Kingdom now and I’m waiting for the earthly Kingdom to come.

Happy and Fit For the Kingdom

Next notice how Jesus describes those who are fit for the Kingdom - Matthew 5:3-9 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Happy are the “poor in spirit” this is the word πτωχός ptōchos; to crouch like a beggar or a  pauper and it is qualified by “in spirit.” This is not material wealth but spiritual wealth and it is the description of one who when they are truly poor in spirit then they receive, the kingdom of heaven.

This is how you enter in to the Kingdom. You realize that you have nothing and come like a beggar, a derelict to the King. When we bow in our nothingness, our filthy rags of self-righteousness and acknowledge that we have nothing to offer, nothing to give that we may enter, then the King in His love and mercy opens the door to the Kingdom of Heaven and bids us enter in. Now that is true happiness isn’t it?

Happy are they that mourn over their sin, the sin of others, the sin of this world, for they will find comfort in the promise of the Lord’s forgiveness and pardon.

Happy are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. This entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven by the grace of the Lord brings us to the blessedness of meekness. This is humility, this is the realization of all that the Lord has done and all that I could never do. What else can I be but meek. This is not weakness, for Moses and Jesus were both described as meek and mild. This is the understanding of a supernatural reality of my relationship with the King but it is held in this vessel of temporary, weak, corrupt flesh.

Happy are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. The longer we live in this sinful flesh, the longer we dwell in this sinful world the more we desire true and full righteousness. And here is God’s promise we will be filled one day.

Happy are the merciful for when we forgive others we find more mercy. Mercy from God and even mercy to and from others.

Now listen carefully to this next one, Happy are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

This is the purity of undivided love and loyalty for God and our reward for that purity of love is beholding the object of our deepest love. One day we shall see literally, fully see God, Like the song says, “I Can only Imagine.”

Finally, Jesus says you are blessed, you are truly happy when you are a peacemaker, for those who make peace are called the children of God. This isn’t talking about being a diplomat or working at the United Nations. This is telling others who are at enmity with God that there is peace, through the Prince of Peace. This is sharing the Gospel with the lost so that God is no longer the wrathful judge who condemns them, but through the Gospel they instead find the loving, forgiving Heavenly Father they had lost by sin.

Those characteristics can only describe the saved, the born again, the redeemed.

The saved by grace through faith, children of God are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven within and one day will walk the streets of Jerusalem for 1000 years as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven come when Jesus returns.

Yes I’m happy now, but won’t you and I be happier, more blessed, more joyful, more content, more filled, more comforted, more at peace then?  

Are you ready? Are you working? Are you praying? Are you giving? We are here now to prepare the way for the Kingdom to come, in the hearts of others and one day on the hills of Jerusalem. That should really make us ….happy!

But what about the time between? What of our life as citizens of the Kingdom, until that Kingdom fully come? In the next few verses Jesus tells us we are blessed, but that blessing is despite persecution in this world.

Three Times Persecuted Matthew 5:10-12

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

The Truth About Persecution

The next 3 verses tell us that the world will try and take away our happiness in the Lord. It will try and break our blessedness by persecution. Yet Jesus promises us that the world will not succeed. In fact all it can do is increase your blessedness and your reward in Heaven.

The more they revile you, persecute and speak all manner of evil falsely against you, because you love Jesus, and are working for the kingdom to come, the more it will result in great rejoicing and gladness, You will rejoice because Jesus said, great is your reward in heaven. You are following in the bloody footprints of those faithful ones that preceded you on that same path to the Kingdom of God.

The Impotence of Persecution

The night before Jesus was arrested and crucified the following day, He talked to Apostles in the upper room, preparing them for life after He was gone. He spoke of many things, abiding in Him, the commandment to love one another, the Comforter and the persecution that would follow them after His return to the Father.

John 15:18-20 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Jesus told us all the way back on that mountain overlooking the sea of Galilee, persections will come. It may direct at the hands of men who hate us because they hate Him. It is happening everyday in nations around the world. It may be indirect through the suffering that comes from sin having polluted this world and our lives and flesh. But no matter how it comes, it will come and when it comes remember what Jesus said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.”

Some of the happiest, most blessed saints of God are those who suffer the most in this world. Persecution, sorrow, pain and even death cannot dim the happiness that is ours in Jesus Christ.

David Livingstone, Missionary to Africa in the 1800s

People speak of the sacrifice I have made. It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. - David Livingstone

The same is true of persecution, it is nothing when compared to the glory which shall be revealed in and for us and it can do nothing but increase our happiness in Jesus.

Now let’s close with the final job description that Jesus gives for those who are citizen of the Kingdom of heaven they are in vss. 13-16

Two Times A Witness – Matthew 5:13-16

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

 The Truth About Being Salt and Light

You are blessed, you know true happiness and now Jesus says here is why you are here on this earth until the Kingdom fully comes. Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth,  you are the light of the world.

We are to be the salt of the earth. And just like physical salt, we, the spiritual salt, are to season, we are to preserve, we are to protect from the rot of this world. We do this by influencing the world with the truth of God’s word, limiting and overcoming the poison and decay of this present world. We share the Gospel, we take a stand for truth, we speak out, loudly when we need to shout down the world’s lies and quietly when we should whisper to a hurting heart. We vote the way we should in this republic and always we live as an example to those around us,  the way citizens of the Kingdom should.

All these spiritually salty actions influence the world and preserves from God’s immediate judgment on our nation, communities and families. We are called to be salt and if we lose our purpose, our savour then the Lord says, you are good for nothing and our testimony, our reputation, our purpose in this world is only to be trodden underfoot as a worthless thing.

We are here to be spiritual salt, so be salt.

Jesus said we are also to be spiritual light, and a bright city set on a hill that cannot be hid. Individually we are a light that the Lord has lit when He saved us and our purpose is to drive back the darkness of our homes, our families and our friends. We are to bring the light of truth and grace to those around us.

But we are also a community of believers, we are the church. The church is meant to be that  city set on a hill, shining out in the dimness of this ever darkening world, so that those who are lost in that darkness will know where to come to find the light Jesus Christ.

Three times in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am the light.” The last time is in John 12:46 46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

The church, our church, Jesus said, is the city set on a hill, shining in the night guiding people to the saving light of Jesus.

Song “Let the Lower Light Be Burning”

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From His lighthouse evermore;
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Refrain: Let the lower lights be burning!
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

Conclusion

As we conclude I must ask, Are You In the Kingdom of Heaven?

Those multitudes who followed Jesus that day and would not leave, came to hear, “How do we enter that Kingdom? When is the Kingdom of Heaven to come?”

The answer Jesus was giving them was, “It’s here now if you will but hear what it means to be poor in spirit, mourn over sin and hunger for righteousness.” If that described them on that mountain that day then the Kingdom was there, waiting for them to enter and for it to enter them. Now we must ask, Does that describes me today? For the message is the same and the  Kingdom is still here in the truth of Jesus words.

One day, the Bible tells us, the Kingdom of Heaven will be a physical reality. Jesus will take the throne of David and on Mt. Zion. He will rule the world for 1000 years, as rightful, true and just King of the Earth. Until then I must know if He rules on the throne of my heart and life.

If He does not then it is time for you to realize your spiritual condition as a lost person away from God, repent and mourn and then rejoice for you will find mercy. The entrance into the Kingdom is through faith in Jesus Christ. And happiness true, lasting, undefeatable, inexhaustible, undeniable happiness is what the King of Glory gives us when we enter into His Kingdom.