The Beatitude Attitudes | Matthew 5:1-12 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] let's take our bibles and go to matthew chapter 5. we're making our way through the new testament now the gospel of matthew so we're going to be in chapter 5. if you'll take your bibles and turn there and we are beginning what is if you have a red letter edition of the bible which records the words of jesus in red you'll notice matthew 5 6 and 7 almost entirely in red this is a sermon that jesus delivers that is affectionately called the sermon on the mount and so we're going to be taking our time over the next several weeks to go through this this is the longest recorded sermon of jesus this is the most familiar sermon of jesus only matthew really records this luke kind of gives an abridged version of this sermon but otherwise matthew's the only of the four gospels that captures the fullness of this sermon and you know if you were to read it just you know at a normal pace matthew 5 6 and 7 you could finish it in about 10 minutes so i don't know who labeled this the sermon on the mount but in my opinion it's more like a devotional on the mount okay because no sermon i've ever delivered was 10 minutes uh mine's gonna be 30 plus so uh sit back and uh and enjoy hopefully but uh this is you know traditionally called this sermon on the mount even though it only takes about 10 minutes to read it so we're going to be taking several weeks to go through it because since this is the longest recorded sermon of jesus i think it makes sense that we should take our time and hear what he has to say so we're going to start just with the first 12 verses today i'm going to read here from chapter 5 starting at verse 1. it says and seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him and then he opened his mouth and taught them saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you let's pause there and pray father in heaven we thank you for the opportunity to join together in your house to worship you and singing and now to worship you as we study the word together because we know lord that it gives you great joy when you see your children walking in the truth and we pray that we would not just be hearers but doers of your word that we would walk in your truth that you would use this sermon that jesus taught us to challenge us and to encourage us and we're thankful for the opportunity to gather here together today and people watching online lord even though we're limited in our ability to gather because of this continued virus we thank you that we can open our church lord and begin services again we pray for an end to this virus we pray lord for you to keep us healthy we thank you on the day after we celebrated the independence of our nation that you've been merciful to us we're going through a lot of things right now as a nation we pray for your help your blessing your wisdom we pray for our president we pray for congress we pray for all of our elected leaders we're just grateful lord to be able to live in in the greatest freest country we just don't want to take that for granted our liberties came at a at a very um costly price and so we pray that we would always cherish our liberties not take them for granted thank you lord for being with us here use this time in your word to strengthen our hearts we pray in jesus name and everybody said amen so this again uh called the sermon on the mount there's a place on the northern coast of the sea of galilee here's the picture behind me this is the landscape of where it is traditionally believed that jesus delivered this sermon just on the northern shore of the sea of galilee this is the only place in terms of topography where there's actually kind of a natural theater and so some believe that this would have been the natural place for jesus to teach given that there's a multitude here and and people could have you know found a place along the hillside to sit and listen as jesus taught it is important to note here as we look at the sermon on the mount that uh jesus um the setting here on this hillside by the sea of galilee has been commemorated now since 1936 the roman catholic church built a church there called the church of the beatitudes that's the first part of what we just read here from the sermon on the mount known as the beatitudes beatitudes just means blessing and there are eight different beatitudes that jesus teaches here in the verses we just read and for that reason in 1936 the roman catholic church built this church as an octagon with eight sides to commemorate the eight different beatitudes that jesus teaches here is kind of the intro to his sermon so as we read these first 12 verses of chapter 5 of matthew it just kind of lays the foundation for the rest of his sermon and i'm glad that jesus does it this way because he begins with eight points of blessings you know he begins each one blessed our blessed our blessed are to encourage us with eight points of blessing because the rest of the sermon is very very challenging when you and i are going to go through this over the next few weeks you're going to find that you're going to be confronted at many different levels in your life and if you don't feel convicted at some point over chapters 5 6 and 7 something's wrong with your conviction button because all of us should look at what jesus says here and take to heart these things and realize that as he teaches them they are very very challenging words so i'm thankful that jesus begins by giving us eight blessings to kind of let us know hey i love you here's how you can gain my favor but now listen there's a whole lot of challenging stuff that follows after it that we'll get into in the next few weeks but this is the church of the beatitudes that is built there on that hillside to commemorate where jesus it is traditionally believed taught this message by the way when we go to israel we always stop here and i do a bible study in the beatitudes in the sermon on the mount and there for the last 20 plus years i've been going to israel there is a nun who is in charge of the church of the beatitudes you don't want to mess with her that's what i'm just telling you right now i i accidentally did you don't want to mess with her you don't want to mess with her um but anyway um she she runs a tight ship there let me just tell you that she's she's mean but anyway but she loves the lord but she's mean all right um something else to to note about this sermon just a few bullet points before we get into the sermon on the mount this is his longest recorded sermon 107 verses as i mentioned and it's it's a it's it might be something that you don't think is significant but it actually is a couple more things here jesus was actually seated when he taught this sermon it tells us in chapter 5 verse 1 that he sat down to teach that was the typical posture of a rabbi back in the day the rabbi would sit and the congregation would remain standing you want to try that i mean just for fun now you know it's a 10-minute sermon for for jesus it's a devotional but you know you'd have to stand for like 30 plus minutes for me so i i won't make you do that you're welcome but the reason why they would typically do that is so that you would not fall asleep seriously i mean think about it it's pretty hard to sit through a sermon by standing to stand through a sermon and fall asleep so typically the rabbi would be seated the people would stand and that's the posture that jesus takes here also i want you to notice with me in the first verse that this sermon was given to his disciples this sermon was given to his disciples and it begins here with eight beatitudes which also means blessings the purpose of this sermon that jesus delivers was to explain to us and to challenge us about what it looks like to live as a follower of jesus christ motivated by the heart rather than by the law you have to remember and i'll talk about this in a few minutes that in jesus day the religious leaders prided themselves on obeying the letter of the law that only produced a self-righteousness jesus comes along with a different aspect if you know me and have relationship with me you will be more motivated to obey me because of the love relationship so it becomes a heart obedience rather than a legalistic obedience and that's much more valuable that's much more real when you have a heart motivation rather than a legal motivation i'll give you an example uh if you're uh in your car and you're driving down uh cycling road what i don't even what's the speed limit of cycling road i don't even know seriously is it 60 for you wow okay uh is it is it like 45 35 all right well um all right so 35 miles an hour if and if you are going 35 miles an hour and you're obeying the speed limit you're to do that because it's the legal code and if you look in your rearview mirror and you see a police officer you're going to make sure that your that your speedometer is right at 35 as as you're driving on cyclin road so you're motivated by the law because you know that's there's a there's a sign that says this is the speed limit you see a police officer in your in your rearview mirror now if however you have a young child in the car with you okay and and now you're more cognizant of speed limits because why you've got a young precious life uh buckled into a car seat in in the back seat of your car the motivation is now more of a heart issue it's i'm not driving the speed limit just because the sign says or just because there's a police officer in my rearview mirror i'm driving the speed limit now to be more careful because i have i have an invested heart issue i've got a a beautiful little precious child in the back seat you see and that's more of a motivation and so this is the kind of thing jesus is trying to teach here when you have relationship with him you're going to want to obey god because there's a heart relationship out of love it's not this legalistic i have to this is the letter of the law you're now motivated in a love relationship with jesus and so he's going to explain through this sermon but if you want to follow me here's the standard if you really want to have a relationship with me and be a disciple of mine a follower of mine you're going to have to understand this is what is required this is the standard for being a follower of mine motivated by the heart not by the letter of the law so that's the purpose of it this is why jesus taught this sermon to his disciples now when we when it says disciples in verse 1 it doesn't mean just the 12 original disciples just the 12 apostles disciples means a follower it means a student of and so there were at times hundreds of followers of jesus disciples of jesus they would peel off as it got closer to the crucifixion and then after he rose from the dead more disciples would grow and such that we're here today as part of followers of jesus christ but the original intent of this sermon was not for the general public it says that he went up on a mountainside a separated himself from the multitude and that his disciples gathered around him and then he taught them why is that important because as we go through this sermon this is not for the general public these are this is intended for people who want to be a devoted follower of jesus christ now if you're here today or if you're watching online and you would say i'm not a follower of jesus okay we're glad you're at church and the sermon on the mount can prove to be a wonderful um bunch of principles for life that might help you in general okay but the actual purpose it was not meant just as a as a bunch of principles for life although one could glean that from the wisdom of jesus but it was meant instead to be received to be heard to be learned as a way of life as devoted followers of jesus christ and so that's the angle that we're going to be coming at this sermon from the things that jesus says here in this sermon through chapters five six and seven are somewhat revolutionary they are very counter-intuitive and completely counter-culture what we're going to read over the next few weeks that jesus says here it's not going to be stuff that you generally hear in the world this is counter culture it's counterintuitive somewhat revolutionary thinking and so we need to be able to approach it from that standpoint it will be uncomfortable at times to hear what jesus has to say and then we have a response to that we can either choose to obey listen have a heart relationship that wants to honor god please god motivated to please god that way or we can decide i don't like all this stuff this is too tough to live up to but jesus wouldn't call us to live up to these things unless it were possible and the possibility remains because we have a love heart relationship with him so we want to please him john stott a great anglican theologian who died in 2011 he said this quote the sermon on the mount is probably the best known part of the teaching of jesus though arguably it is the least understood and certainly it is the least obeyed end quote i think he's right so we're going to start here with the beatitudes these eight statements that jesus makes here and uh these beatitudes have been somewhat compared to the ten commandments in this sense there are eight beatitudes there are ten commandments in the old testament and compared in this sense that whereas the ten commandments were a list of what you should not do the eight beatitudes are a list of what you should do so jesus approaches things at the beginning of the sermon by saying here are eight character traits that my followers need to need to understand and live up to and to be about this is what i want you to do versus the ten commandments these are the things you should not do and so as we look here at these eight beatitudes this morning i first want to just lay out three just you know uh general thoughts about the beatitudes and here's the first one so we understand what we're heading into here these are eight character traits that identify true followers of jesus christ they are not multiple choice it's not like you're reading an a la carte menu at a restaurant you decide i think i want this one i like that one that i don't like these other ones you can't read the beatitudes like that and think to yourself i don't like some of these but i'll i i like some of the other ones this is a package deal this is not like an a la carte menu this is like going to costco you only wanted one can of tuna but you're gonna get eight whether you wanted them or not and this is the deal like the beatitudes you can't look at and say i only want one you're gonna get eight and by the way there's somebody who shops at costco and by the way these are progressive in intensity you'll notice it starts out with blessed or the poor in spirit he's going to talk about and we'll mention all of these eight real quickly through the course of today but he begins by saying blessed are the poor in spirit having like this impoverished view of your soul why you need jesus to begin with that's the first one he's going to end with blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake you're going to start out with you need to come to me approaching me with with an understanding of how poor you are in your spirit that's where it begins but at the end at point number eight he's going to talk about people who are persecuted for their faith and so it needs to be seen as a package and it needs to be seen as progressive with intensity we don't get to pick and choose it's not multiple choice second it's important to realize that these traits open the door to inner happiness the word beatitude translates literally blessed and so he's going to begin each one blessed are blessed are blessed are this is the only time that jesus repeats a word eight consecutive times in any of his teachings recorded in the bible and he's going to talk here about blessed are blessed are blessed are each character trait opens the door to inner happiness and that word blessed can literally mean in the greek oh how happy so he's basically saying oh how happy are the men and women who follow me in this way and in this way and in this way oh how happy that's the idea behind these beatitudes and then the third general observation before we look look at these eight is that attached to each character trait is a corresponding promise and i'm sure you notice as we read through it blessed are he talks about what the character trait is and then he says for theirs is or they shall and he attaches a promise a blessing of some kind he holds out a particular benefit to each particular quality that has an eternal value and so he's not just saying you're blessed if you do this he's saying you're blessed if you do this and here's the promise for you because of your faithfulness in these ways so as we look through this again today not as challenging when we get into the rest of the sermon it'll be more challenging today he begins with just some wonderful blessings here's some wonderful things i want you to exemplify as a follower of mine here's some traits i want you to have and if you have these there's going to be a blessing attached to it so here's the first one we're going to go through these eight kind of rapid fire the first one he addresses are the poor in spirit in verse three he says blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven again literally oh how happy are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now he's not talking about material poverty here he's talking about spiritual poverty those who are poor in spirit not poor materially and again he is asking us as followers of his to come to him first with the understanding of how destitute we are in our spirit and that every single person comes to jesus poor in spirit seeing their need for him aware of their sinful condition of just how impoverished we are spiritually speaking and so he says here basically that happiness begins when we see our emptiness how poor we are in spirit and receive his fullness that's what he's saying oh how happy are the poor in spirit and then the promise attached there is for theirs is the kingdom of heaven the ultimate reward for those who come to christ beginning with being poor in spirit seeing our own destitute sinful condition is the ultimate reward is that we will enjoy heaven that's our eternal reward now in the bible there are two phrases that are sometimes used interchangeably kingdom of god kingdom of heaven in this passage he talks about the kingdom of heaven and a lot of times those phrases are used interchangeably in the gospels but sometimes they are not and the difference between the two is basically this the kingdom of god is about god's rule in your heart and in your life in a broader sense you know it's much larger than that but individually speaking the kingdom of god is when the lord rules and reigns in your heart and in your life here's a verse for that it's luke 17 verses 20 and 21. in luke 17 20 21 jesus said the kingdom of god will not come with your careful observation neither will people say here it is or there it is for the kingdom of god is within you that's luke 17 21 the kingdom of god is within you in other words as a follower of christ i submit my life to the king who is jesus and now he dominates my life i'm subject to him as part of the kingdom every kingdom has a king and has subjects of the king and when the kingdom of god comes into my life to rule and reign that means i'm subject to him as the king i surrender my life to him he's in charge he's lord and i serve him and i follow him that's the kingdom of god the kingdom of heaven is where god reigns i mean it heaven is a real place and heaven is the ultimate reward for those who know him and love him and that's where we will ultimately go the bible talks about it being a new heaven and a new earth this present heaven and present earth will be replaced by another one but this is the ultimate destination and this is the promise of those who love the lord and that begins by being poor in spirit and seeing our own destitute condition and then he goes on in verse four number two and he addresses those who mourn this is another quality trait he wants us to have in verse 4 he says blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted so he talks about those who are grieving now he can mean this in one of two ways or a combination he might he might mean this those who emotionally are grieving because we go through stuff in life literally the the loss of a loved one a personal hardship that we might be facing why would jesus talk about those who mourn if he only means it emotionally speaking because as a follower of christ you know if you've been through terrible difficult times that it builds a a character trait in you through suffering that you otherwise can't always experience without the suffering in other words sometimes that suffering that we go through in this lifetime forges us like in you know as as as god is like a blacksmith and we are like the tool on the anvil he is like shaping us molding us but that comes through intense pressure that comes through intense heat that comes through suffering and it could be that jesus is saying about those who are going through suffering in this lifetime blessed are you who mourn for they shall be comforted but the other aspect could mean just simply spiritually mourning in other words you know coming to christ involves a dying to self and in that dying to self there's like a grieving process i mean there's somewhat of a of a grieving process when you when you you know leave the life you used to live and you come into a relationship with christ there's a dying to self and there's a mourning process and it could be that the lord is simply saying when you are grieving over your own sinful condition and you come to me empty of self that's poor in spirit i will comfort you i will comfort you and you know the promise here is just that for they shall be comforted paul would write in second corinthians 1 praise be to the god and father of our lord jesus christ the father of compassion and the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from god for just as the sufferings of christ flow over into our lives so also through christ our comfort overflows and so what paul is writing there is that god is not unaware of your suffering and of the of the grievous things that you and i go through and so he will comfort us but then paul says and then once we're comforted we need to comfort others who are going through similar things because we understand and we can comfort them with the same comfort that we have received from god the third quality trait that he mentions here are the meek in verse 5 he says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth now meek does not mean weak and sometimes people think if i meek i'm just like this you know whipped puppy like i'm just supposed to walk around also meek and hunched over that's not meek meekness is not weakness jesus was the meekest man who ever lived but there was nothing weak about him and so meekness is not thinking less of myself meekness is thinking of myself less right meekness is not thinking less of myself it's not this you know kind of down on yourself you know it's it's basically just recognizing as a meek person i want to think less of myself and more of other people in fact paul would write in philippians 2 verse 3 do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility in meekness think of others greater than yourself and so he commends us for being meek this is what he wants he wants us to follow his example to be meek and the greek word for meek can literally translate a domestic to domesticate a wild animal and so that's a picture for me it's like the idea of being meek is that i once was wild and the lord i came into relationship with him and now he's kind of domesticated me and so now now he is my master right and so we we become domesticated and so he's saying to us this is a character trait you want to follow me you have to be meek and the promise for those who are meek is for they shall inherit the earth and what he speaks of there is the millennial kingdom when the lord returns and the bible says he's going to set up his kingdom on earth for a thousand years the bible says he will return with the saints and we shall rule and reign with him and that's what he's talking about he's talking here about in the future days the saints will rule and reign with me and you will inherit the earth number four he commends here those who hunger and thirst for righteousness that's verse 6 blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled now notice the first three beatitudes were about emptying yourself dying to self poor in spirit those who mourn and being meek that's kind of an emptying of self that's a dying to self now here in the fourth beatitude he's talking here about getting filled up who hunger and thirst i want more of his righteousness those who hunger and thirst for his righteousness now again as i mentioned earlier there are two types of righteousness one is obeying the letter of the law that produces a self-righteousness which can often become judgmental that's the kind of righteousness that the pharisees pursued in jesus day they prided themselves on obeying the letter of the law i'm a really good person because i do all the rules and regulations which nobody can really do nobody can live up to all the rules and regulations and and yet god has given the law to expose our inability to live up to it now that's not a past that doesn't mean well i can never live up to it so you know the moral aspect of god's law i don't have to live up to no he still wants you not to steal not to murder not to commit adultery all those good things but the intent of the law was to expose our inability to live up to the standard of god so that we would cry out for a savior so nobody can listen think think about just how many of god's commandments did you break on your way to church today i mean just think think about this the everyday ways that we sin and and how the law is something like a mirror that exposes our you know our true self and that's why we need to cry out for a savior so self righteousness comes by trying to gain a a righteousness through obeying the letter of the law but the kind of righteousness that jesus wants us to pursue is the kind that can only be given to us as a gift because of our faith in what jesus christ did and the bible says that if we trust christ that he paid the price for our sins he died on a cross for our sins i cannot live up to the letter of the law try as hard as i might i need a savior i need someone who will have mercy on me i need someone who will forgive me and someone then who will pay the price on my behalf because i wasn't able to live up to the letter of the law and thus that's jesus and so the bible tells us in second corinthians 5 21 that god made him that is jesus to become sin god made him who knew no sin jesus to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of god so god's righteousness is a gift it is imputed to us by faith versus us trying to make ourselves righteous by obeying the letter of the law does everybody get that and so this is the kind of righteousness that we are to pursue more of him to to be right with god is was what righteousness is all about and so the promise for those who pursue righteousness for they shall be filled when we hunger and thirst for more of him he will fill us up beatitude number five jesus tells us to be merciful he says in verse seven blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy he wants us to be merciful why because we've received mercy you know justice is getting what you deserve mercy is not getting what you deserve so all of us deserve hell because all of us have sinned all of us have fallen short of the glory of god god sends his son jesus to die on a cross faith in what he did for us allows us to receive the mercy of god so that we do not get what we deserve god is merciful to us but guess what as recipients of his mercy he wants us to be dispensers of his mercy he wants us to be merciful to other people in the same way that we have received his mercy and let me tell you something when we are unmerciful to people it is both hypocritical and judgmental it's hypocritical and that we are receiving something we don't want to give we don't practice what we preach that's hypocrisy it's also judgmental because if we don't give people mercy even though we have received mercy we're basically saying that they don't deserve what we deserved that's judgmental and so god calls us as his followers i want you to be merciful i want you to extend mercy to people and the promise is for they shall obtain mercy the more merciful you are the more merciful god is to you and jesus said in luke 6 36 therefore be merciful just as your father also is merciful quality number six what he calls us two is a pure heart he wants us to be pure in heart blessed verse eight blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god now again the pharisees in jesus day strict adherence to the letter of the law we're always concerned about the outward appearance whereas the bible says god is always concerned about the inward appearance the heart god is not concerned about outward stuff he's concerned about inward stuff so the pharisees would make sure that they followed every ritual aspect of cleansing to make sure that they were outwardly clean so there were ritual baths the mikvahs there was ritual ways to wash your hands and uh and and you had to follow the strict code of how to properly wash your hands and how to properly wash the outside of your body it was all ritual it was all cleansing and listen it was initially prescribed in the mosaic law so i'm not saying that it was inappropriate but in its day it was intended to make people aware that they have a cleansing problem and it's not just an outward thing it's an inward thing and and so the cleansing aspect of the mosaic law was intended to point people to the fact that they needed a greater cleansing which they couldn't do by all the scrubbing and bathing that they could possibly engage in they needed a cleansing of the heart and that's only what god can do so all the ritual baths and all the ritual ways of washing your hands was all part of just leading up to the greater cleansing that we need which is the need for the cleansing of the heart that only jesus can provide for us and so understanding it from that aspect we are to receive and can only receive a pure heart through faith in christ he cleanses us from the inside we come to faith in him we say lord forgive me my sins you know what i've done cleanse my heart and god supernaturally does that that's what he does for us so it's a gift in what god does to cleanse our hearts but it's a responsibility for us to continue to walk in purity that part is on us because that honors god now you might remember that in the early church first ten chapters of the book of acts all the believers in jesus christ were exclusively jewish believers the early church was exclusively jewish for about the first 10 years you get to acts chapter 10 there's a gentile guy by the name of cornelius he's a roman centurion and god through a vision a dream shows the apostle peter you were to go to cornelius house and you were to preach the good news and you're you're to lead him in a relationship with me well peter at first balked at that because cornelius is a gentile and peter was reluctant to go into a house of a gentile they were all these you know look stuff hasn't changed right there you know no matter what time period you look in in history in human history there's always divisions based on class or all these kind of issues that have divided people that shouldn't but peter had to get over the fact that gentiles could also be included in faith and it was not just exclusively for jews alone jesus died for all all people he goes to the house of cornelius leads his family to the lord they get baptized by the holy spirit they come to faith in christ but the early church was confused about this and so in acts chapter 15 they the the jewish ruling council they call the the early apostles call peter in to give an account we heard that you led a bunch of gentiles to faith in jesus you got to explain this to us we weren't quite sure ourselves that gentiles were included and peter gets up and before his his uh fellow apostles in john chapter 5 in acts chapter 15 and he says this in verses 8 and 9 god who knows the heart okay it's pure in heart showed that he accepted them by giving the holy spirit to them just as he did to us he made no distinction between us and them between jews and gentiles for listen he purified their hearts by faith now that's not a visible thing you can't see somebody's heart become purified but peter knew that cornelius family experienced the same thing that he experienced that anyone experiences when you come to faith in jesus god gives you a clean heart he purifies your heart and then he calls us to walk in that kind of purity and the promise is for they shall see god there's one day that believers in jesus are going to stand before the lord and we're going to see him john would write in first john 3 2 beloved now we are children of god and it has not been yet revealed what we shall be but we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is how many of you are looking forward one day to seeing jesus face to face right amen number seven he asks us to be peacemakers in verse nine blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god he wants it to be our goal to make peace with people not because we are necessarily at odds with someone but to be people who facilitate peace between one and another and to be a peacemaker is not just to put an end to quarrels or conflict a peacemaker is one who brings good into other people's lives because they pursue peace and a peacemaker by the way never compromises truth for the sake of making peace a lot of people who want to be peacemakers but they they will do bad stuff to try to make peace that's not the right approach not a peacemaker in jesus we should never compromise the truth in order to make peace and we should never try to engage evil in an effort to make peace but as peacemakers we should always strive to please the lord and to use wisdom from above to promote peace in different situations and he promises for they shall be called sons of god this is the promise of a relationship you're not called a son or a daughter and it is meant in a universal way like that you're not called a child unless there's relationship and so he promises about how we shall have that relationship with him god made peace with man through the cross god is a peacemaker he reconciled man to himself through the cross and we exemplify him and we reflect him when we are peacemakers ourselves the last one number eight he wants us to have the trait of understanding that those who are persecuted for righteousness sake he says in verse 10 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and so the trait here is get ready for a little persecution we have it really comfortable i don't know how much our religious liberties are are fading away but it seems to me that they are certainly being threatened now of course we don't suffer the kind of persecution that a lot of people suffer around the world we have it really easy right now but every time i think about the persecution that jesus tells us to expect as christians i keep wondering how much more will we still be able to enjoy that kind of comfort here so we should be prepared and we shouldn't take for granted our religious liberties they may not always be there they are eroding swiftly i mean by the day our religious liberties are being eroded again that is to take nothing away from other christians around the world who are dying for their faith even as we speak but it is still to be aware of the fact that jesus says here as part of being my follower yet to be prepared for some persecution you have to be prepared for some persecution he doesn't hold back here in fact this last beatitude is the only one that he adds two more verses to amplify and it's verses 11 and 12. look at your bibles this is not another beatitude this is just an amplification of the of the last one in verses 11 and 12 he said blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great as your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you how did they persecute the prophets who were before us they killed them okay christianity and being a follower of jesus christ is something that people are dying for on a daily basis around the world so as long as you and i aren't threatened necessarily with our lives presently we should still mentally and spiritually prepare for the fact that one day we may not enjoy the kind of liberties that we do what kind of a christian will we be then when your life is on the line will you still be as bold for your faith as you are now when your life is not on the line i mean are you willing to actually be persecuted and potentially have to die for your faith and so jesus warns us this is part of being a follower of mind but the promise is the same as the promise of the first beatitude for theirs is the kingdom of heaven he reminds us in this world you will have trouble take heart i've overcome the world there is an ultimate destination don't fix your eyes too much horizontally folks okay fix your eyes vertically always keep that perspective fix your gaze to the lord fix your gaze to the ultimate reward of heaven don't get too comfortable here and don't think that the world offers any solutions all right the solution is in the lord and we need to always be mindful to keep our eyes fixed on jesus the author and finisher of our faith and paul would write this and i'll close with this out of second corinthians 8 4 verses 16 and he says therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all amen father we pray that you would help us as we decide to be followers of yours that we would take to heart the things that you tell us lord the things that show us to be your followers beginning with these beatitudes thank you lord that you began this sermon by reminding us of the blessings that we have in you help us to live out these things that these character traits would mark our lives as followers of jesus christ and thank you that you attach a blessing to each of these knowing that our ultimate reward is to spend eternity with you in heaven prepare our hearts lord and as we go through this sermon over the next few weeks we pray that you would challenge us and encourage us to be more like jesus in every way and it's in his matchless name that we pray and everybody's sad amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 51,617

Rating: 4.8323631 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

Id: N9wxUfoTPPQ

Length: 43min 16sec (2596 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2020