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Sermon on the Mount: Beatitudes Revisited
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Matthew 5:3-12
This sermon will serve as an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount Series and an overview on the Beatitudes. For a more detailed treatment of the Beatitudes you can go to the sermon archive HERE and listen to the sermons from that series (Fall 2016).
Kingdom Life
In Matthew 4:17, “Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In 4:23, we read that He went throughout Galilee “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.” The kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God as it is elsewhere called, is at the heart of the message of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes in particular. This sermon shows us the character and the lifestyle of those who by the grace of God have been delivered from death’s dominion into life (Ephesians 2:1-4); from darkness’ reign into light – the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).
The Kingdom of heaven is good news! It is good news for all manner of people, not just the socially elite or religiously proper. In His day the foreigners, the sick and afflicted, the demon-oppressed, the mentally ill, and all manner of other social outcasts were regulars among the crowds who were flocking to hear, see, and be touched by Jesus. As it was then, so it is still today. The Kingdom of heaven is populated by the many who are weak and foolish in the eyes of the world. It is not those who have it all together that are in the Kingdom, because ultimately nobody has it all together. Rather, repentance is the Kingdom’s call. Repentance requires the acknowledgment of sin but that too is good news, for the repentant person is the recipient of God’s blessed favor. The Beatitudes help show some of the paradoxes of the Gospel for it is the poor in spirit and the persecuted who are citizens of heaven’s kingdom.
The Kingdom is in this world but not of this world. To paraphrase Izaac Walton, heaven is in the Christian before the Christian is in heaven. The dominion of Christ is present in His people, that is all who have received His grace by the regenerating and sanctifying presence of the Spirit. Those so transformed are no longer under the rule of this world’s present darkness and decay. Rather, we are ambassadors of light and life. We are salt and light, displaying the blessed character of heaven’s citizens in all our thoughts, words, and deeds.
The Kingdom is already present though not yet fully come. Like a pregnant woman who carries her unborn child is already a mother though she has yet to give him birth, so too is the Kingdom. There is life already conceived and growing but not yet fully arrived.
The Beatitudes
Blessed. That simple word begins each new thought in the Sermon’s first section. The blessedness is seen in the needy person who finds fulfillment in no other but Christ – the Kingdom’s Savior and Lord. In this Kingdom the poor in spirit are equal citizens not second class. The mourners are not ignored but comforted with forgiveness and justice. The meek receive a royal inheritance rather than the trampling underfoot of the strong and powerful. The hungry and thirsty for righteousness are not left empty but are satisfied in full, having tasted and seen the goodness of Christ. The merciful are not looked upon with contempt but receive mercy from their King and also from their fellow subjects. The pure in heart are not shunned for being narrow-minded but granted an audience with God Himself. The peacemakers find that their labor is not in vain but they have eternal peace and wholeness as sons and daughters of God. Finally, the persecuted see that the ridicule, mocking, and threat of death is not ultimate or final but their blessed citizenship in heaven through Christ is.
These Beatitudes show the character of the Christian and of the Lord Jesus. As such we should rightly understand that (1) the Beatitudes apply to all Christians, (2) they are all evident in every true Christian, (3) they are present in us by the grace of Christ and work of the Spirit, and (4) we can cultivate them through faithful dependence upon the Spirit and by the guidance of God’s Word.
Discussion Questions
- What is Biblical repentance? Why is repentance a key sign of Kingdom life
- What are some of the evidences that heaven is in you though you are not yet in heaven?
- How do these evidences match up with the character of the Christian that is described in the Beatitudes?
- What does it mean to be blessed according to Jesus?
- How does the blessedness Jesus describes contradict what the world would most normally call blessed?
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