Matthew chapter 5:1-12 (continued)

“And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 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.”

How is your walk with the Lord?

I have to check this daily. We cannot neither dwell on the failures of the past nor become complacent with the successes of yesterday. The Beatitudes are one of the best ways to gauge you walk with the Lord.  For most of us they will be more a source of conviction that contentment and that is okay.

Those of you that know me know that I am a big guy. I have been big for most of my adult life.  Over the years I have tried all manner of diets and calorie reducing plans all to no avail. I have lost more weight than I actually weighed but eventually I put it back on. The reason is that my relationship to food never changed, I never changed when it came to food.

What I learned is that one will never change the outside permanently until there is an internal change.  In the case of my weight, I had to change my love for food and my dependency on food as a source of happiness.

Our walk with the Lord is a reflection of an internal change.  Let me clarify, when we are saved the Holy Spirit comes in to live in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19).

“Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,”

In this Scripture we see that the Holy Spirit lives in us once we are saved, our bodies become His Sanctuary.  When we think of the word sanctuary today we think of a place of rest for animals who have been abused or a safe place for troubled people.

But in the Old Testament, the temple of God was a sanctuary. It was a place of respect for God, of seeing God’s power and for one to have a healthy fear of God. The sanctuary was the center  of worship for the nation of Israel and our bodies are the main tool with which we worship the Lord.

We use our hands, our mouths, our feet, our minds and our time to worship the Lord. True worship comes from and internal sense of gratitude and awe towards the Lord, and this is sparked in us through the Holy Spirit as He lives in us.

In Romans 12:1-2 we are called to become “living sacrifices” surrendering our bodies to God   so He can renew our minds and “transform” us.

The word transform mean the change into something else. The best example of transformation for us to see if a caterpillar turning into a butterfly: no one goes to a caterpillar sanctuary, but people actually pay to go and see butterfly sanctuaries.

God wants to take us and transform us from lost unsaved caterpillars into beautiful saved butterflies.

The Beatitudes are the colors on our wings, they make us beautiful and show the changes that God is making in us.  Today we will look at two other Beatitudes by which to gauge our wall with the Lord.  Ironically, in the KJV Bible our walk with the Lord is often called our “conversation.”

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, Verse 6

This is definitely a transformation from the Lord.  The natural man, we are told in Romans 8:37 is the enemy of God and does not naturally seek after God:

“For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s law,  for it is unable to do so.”

Our minds do not naturally seek to obey God and to honor Him; we are God’s enemy in our natural state. So if you have a mind and a will that wants to seek righteousness that is a wonderful sign that God is working in you—a sign that His Holy Spirit is transforming you   from the inside and the evidence of that is coming out in your body.

The Scriptures tell us that when we seek after righteousness that we will be filled. Filled with what? Who fills us?

Satisfaction is what we are looking for. When we are hungry we want food, when thirsty, we want drink and these things satisfy us. When we desire righteousness and seek it like hungry  men and women God will satisfy us with His righteousness.

We will crave living right. We  will dream about it and when we fail we will repent and fall on His mercy; but get up determined to succeed.

When we have these desires, these cravings and these drives from the Holy Spirit in us, we will find satisfaction, contentment, we will find our fill in Christ our perfection. Matthew 6:33 tell us to “seek first the kingdom of God” and all the things you need will be given to you.

Not  many people live life satisfied or content, but as God’s people we can simply by seeking after righteousness and the drive of the Holy Spirit in us calls us.

Blessed Are the Merciful, Verse 7

Our God is a merciful God, in Ephesians 2:4, we are told that “Our God is rich in mercy.” All through the Psalms the writers sing of His mercy. In Psalm 136 the echo for the psalm is “His mercy endures forever.”

We are blessed to serve a merciful God. Just take a few moments of honest reflection at your track record as a person and then as a Christian. Are you glad that God is merciful? I sure am. have failed the Lord in more ways than I can recount and truly ask forgiveness for.

Psalm 25:7 begs God to forgive the “sins of our youth,” those things that we did and did not feel any shame for. I am glad that God is merciful.

In turn you and I should be merciful. Jesus was here on earth, He forgive sins and healed people spiritually and emotionally.  was the complete opposite of the religious bigots of His day; men, who sinned themselves but had no compassion for sinners (see John 8:1-11).

Jesus had every right to be unmerciful; He was and is 100 percent righteous. But He was and is merciful. Matthew 5:45 tells us that God allows sunshine and rain on the “Just and the unjust.”

Are you a merciful person? Am I a merciful person? These are soul searching questions. You see for us to obtain mercy from God we must be merciful people. We need to be compassionate to people when the sin or fail.

1 Peter 4:8 reminds us that “love covers a multitude of sins” aren’t you glad that Jesus loves you and covers your sin? Prideful people cannot forgive, they have this idea that what has been done to them is greater even that what they do to God.  They expect God to forgive them, but cannot forgive others.

Even the model prayer beginning in Matthew 6: 9, we are reminded that we are to forgive other as God forgives us.  Jesus reminds Peter in Matthew 18:22 that we are to forgive endlessly; don’t keep count. God does not keep a count of our sins, but offers us fresh mercy each day as we see in Lamentations 3:22-23:

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. We will end as we began, how is your walk with the Lord?”

Sean Gooding

Pastor, Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com

missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Matthew chapter 5:1-12  (continued)

“When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.Then He began to teach them, saying:”

The Beatitudes

“The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted.

The gentle are blessed, for they will inherit the earth.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, for they will be filled.

The merciful are blessed, for they will be shown mercy.

The pure in heart are blessed, for they will see God.

The peacemakers are blessed, for they will be called sons of God.

Those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

“You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For, that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

We are about to move into the heart of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus is about to say some things that will astonish just about everyone and challenge everyone to check the “man in the mirror.” This chapter begins a part of the Bible called “The Sermon on the Mount” wherein Jesus laid out some very important things that we need to have in order to live out the faith that we have in Him.

Notice that in verse 2, these lessons were for the disciples.The other listeners are going to benefit from this teaching, but this lesson is really for the disciples.It is important for us to listen to these words as they are for those of us that have accepted the Lord as Savior and have decided to “follow me.”

The Greek translation for “He began to teach” (verse 2), implies that this is an important and grave lesson; something to be carefully listened to and applied.These Beatitudes, as they are called, will be a gauge for us to measure our place in the Lord’s work and to measure whether or not we are in the right mind and have the right spirit.

In the Old Testament the people were governed by the Ten Commandments; rules that deal with the way a person was on the outside.No idol, no cursing God, obedient to parents, no lying etc.But the Beatitudes deal with the motives why we do what we do.Are we gentle people?Are we merciful people? Are we pure in heart?These base motives will then guide how we think and act.They will flow out from inside and take action.

The word for “blessed’ is a Latin word beatus. The word can be translated “really happy.”

Today we associate the idea of happiness with not having any pain, suffering or trouble.This is not what this word is trying to relay to us.Rather, it is a word that means a happiness that the pain, suffering and troubles of this world cannot take away.This kind of happiness is an inner happiness that comes from an utter dependence and reliance on God.

It is the kind of happiness that never calls into questions the character of God, no matter what else is happening in one’s life. This happiness is a present state, not one that will come in time or in the future BUT it is a happiness that we can have from God now, today in this present life. This is the idea of bringing the joy and happiness of heaven to us.

John 16:22 tells us that “no one can rob us of this joy.” This joy is not circumstantial, rather it is a state of being.Now we are not insane people blindly unaware of the pains of life.We simply accept that pains of life and our place in life are under the power, care and over sight of the Lord. Thus our joy, our happiness rests in that security.

The Poor in Spirit, Verse 3

Simply put these are people who know that they need God. Do you need God? Many folks today simply don’t really think that they need God. In Mark 2:17 Jesus said this in response to Pharisees that secretly were surprised that He would eat with sinner,

When Jesus heard this, He told them, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Society has so poisoned people with the “I’m okay, you’re okay’ philosophy that the devil has come in and taken away any sense of shame and sin.Things that used to be done in secret are now done in the open and no one is ashamed anymore.People who don’t think they are sinners will not call on God. But the poor in spirit will, they who know for sure that they have offended God and are sinner will get the kingdom of heaven as a blessing.

In Luke 18:9-14 we find this teaching from Jesus:

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This tax collector was ‘poor in spirit’. He understood that he was a sinner and that God had every right to execute His wrath on him. He begged God for mercy and humbled himself before the Living God. For one to truly be blessed by God, to have that eternal joy/happiness that only comes from God and that transcends the trials and tests of life one must begin here, with a poor spirit.

Sadly many today do not have a poor spirit. All too many are like the Pharisee, they truly think that God owes them something. That God is indebted to them and that He is the one who is blessed to have them. Even worse, they are many saved people who have this kind of spirit. These people are not blessed by God and certainly do not live in His power.

Lastly there is large section of the modern NT church that is involved in “kingdom building” here on earth. They are building “spiritual kingdoms” here on earth where for the most part they are the god. Their faces and their abilities are the true power of the work being done. Many have millions of followers and these minions buy every book, CD and DVD that is published.

BUT, those who are truly “poor in spirit” are given the kingdom of heaven by God.God is the God of heaven, He is its face, the power and it is His 66 books that matter.Where is your kingdom? If it is on earth and if it is built by and on Man, it is already crumbling and falling apart.Rather come and be given a kingdom that cannot fail, cannot erode and can never be taken from you because no one is stronger than God.

Matthew 6:19-20:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

Being “poor in spirit” is the state that we remain in until we meet the Lord and are changed into our incorruptible bodies.We should never get too big for God; never think that we have arrived in this life as far as spiritual things are concerned.Even Solomon in all his wisdom served idols when he got older, forgetting who gave him his wisdom. Read 1 Kings 11:1-4 and you will see this.

It is essential that we remain the “poor in spirit” during our walk here on earth. In this we will always remember whose kingdom it really is and that we are blessed—eternally blessed to have it given to us by God. (“The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”)

Isaiah 57:15:

“For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: ‘I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.’”

Sean Gooding

Pastor, Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com

missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca