#blessed - Fourth Sunday of Epiphany

In this sermon on the Beatitudes, we reconsider one of Jesus’ most familiar teachings and discover that it is not a checklist for becoming blessed, but a revelation of the gospel itself. Jesus’ words first function as a mirror , exposing our spiritual poverty and the impossibility of achieving righteousness on our own. They then become a portrait, showing us the life and character of the one truly blessed man—Jesus Christ—who perfectly fulfills the law for us. Finally, the Beatitudes stand as a promise: through faith in Christ, his righteousness becomes ours, and the blessings he declares are given to us now and fulfilled when we see God face to face. The Beatitudes don’t tell us how to climb our way to God. They announce what God has given us in Christ—true blessedness grounded not in our performance, but in his finished work.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now, Father, we pray that you would indeed to us bring the foolishness of the gospel to bear. That Christ, you would be for proud hearts a stumbling block, so that we might fall upon you and be broken, so that you might bind us up and make us whole. We thank you, God, that your foolishness is wiser than men, and your weakness is stronger than men, that you choose foolish things in the world to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong. We pray now that as we rejoice again in the gospel of your Son Jesus Christ, that we would boast, Lord, in you and you alone, who are wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We pray these things, Jesus, in your name and for your sake. Amen. Please be seated. I'll invite you before we begin to grab your pew Bible or your copy of the scriptures. In the Pew Bible, our passage begins on page 759. It's Matthew chapter 5, and we'll we'll look at a few other passages in the following verses briefly this morning. Matthew chapters 5 through 7, that's the Sermon on the Mount. It contains Jesus' most famous teachings, including the Beatitudes that we'll consider this morning. These two chapters are chalk full of so many memorable turns of phrase. We have the golden rule, we have logs and specks in each other's eyes, so on and so forth. It's constant references, and in church and culture and media risk the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in particular becoming overly familiar to us. This morning, I'm gonna argue that all of us have probably engaged wrongly with the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps you've been sitting in church or listening to a preacher on the radio. People still listen to the radio? Yeah, people listen to the radio. Yeah. On the radio or or uh or on a podcast, and you've you've heard someone say, a preacher say of these beatitudes, that the beatitudes tell us that Christians should be of this attitude. Has anyone ever heard that before? I'm so glad. I asked that at home group, and and people gave me that same puzzled look that you just did. I'm actually really, really glad to hear that. Maybe I've been engaging wrongly with the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes my whole life, and you all have got it figured out, in which case, I'm really glad for that. That phrase, be of this attitude, that I've heard preachers roll out, it suggests that the Christian's life is characterized by this list that Jesus rolls out in the first few verses of Matthew chapter 5, and that the Beatitudes are a prescription for how we are to live as Christians in the world. So you ought to be of this attitude. That's where that comes from. I hope that if that has been the case, that that turn of phrase or or that notion that that turn of phrase embodies, if you have heard that or you have yourself onboarded that notion, that you'll take it with a healthy grain of salt. Because of what Jesus says a few verses later in Matthew chapter 5, verse 20. This is the same Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. If the Beatitudes are a prescription for how it is that we achieve blessedness, or how it is we enter into the kingdom of God, well then I have news for you. We're in trouble. Because if the Pharisees and scribes, those whose professional life consisted of memorizing and copying day after day the Bible, if they weren't going to make it in on their own righteousness, you and I have, well, slightly more than a snowball's chance outside today. We don't have much of a shot, really. Luther called the Beatitudes Satan's favorite sermon. All right. Hang with me, all right? Luther called the Beatitudes Satan's favorite sermon. Because, isolated from its context and without the promise of the gospel, the Beatitudes do one of two things. They either drive Christians to despair, or they inflate hypocrites with a false righteousness. They either crush us or they serve as self-assembly instructions by which we put together, build ourselves a ladder, so that rung by rung, in keeping the Beatitudes, we climb to the top and we find ourselves in the end, in our own estimation, able to present ourselves acceptable and blameless before the Holy God. Well, how do we get then from Satan's favorite sermon to the gospel? This morning, we're gonna take three passes at the Beatitudes. First, we're gonna see them as a mirror, the law that shows us our sin. Second, we'll see the Beatitudes as a portrait, a beautiful picture. And finally, we'll see them as a promise. Mirror, portrait, and promise. Having just commenced his ministry, Jesus, he's been into the wilderness, he's been baptized by John, he's taught and healed great crowds such that his fame has spread throughout all of Syria. So that he can have a break from the crowds pressing in to be healed. Jesus, he goes up into the mountains so that he can spend some time with those who are closest to him, his twelve disciples, so that he might instruct them and teach them. So he makes his way up, and it's probably some kind of natural amphitheater with a little plateau in the middle and mountains and hills on all the sides. And so the crowds are there nearby, Jesus takes his seat, excuse me, the disciples are there nearby, Jesus takes his seat, and the crowds are probably populating all the little hillocks around. I would note for us though that the message of the Beatitudes and the Sermon and the Sermon on the Mount is immediately for those twelve disciples, for those that he has just called to leave their fisher fishing nets so that they might go and be fishers of men. He says to these would-be warriors who've left everything behind to come and to follow this remarkable man, these would-be warriors who are probably anticipating some type of battle plan being drawn up. After all, we have the army here in the hills around us, Jesus. Let's go storm Jerusalem. Let's drive the Romans out. He says to these men, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Deflated much, do you think? This is not the kingdom that we had reckoned for Jesus. This is not the kind of blessing that we anticipated. As Jesus, he lays out the Beatitudes, they are descriptive, not prescriptive. And that's the fatal error that Christians so often make as we come to the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is here declaring what is, not laying out a plan for how we might attain. He does not say, if you are poor in spirit, you will be blessed. That's the ladder Satan wants us to build. That's the way we attain heaven and righteousness on our own. Let me work really hard at being poor in spirit, so God will in turn bless me. When Jesus says blessed, he's pushing back as well against the world's thin view of blessedness. An Instagram-worthy curated life that rarely looks like poverty or mourning or persecution. The Bible, though, attests to a blessedness that is separate and distinct from our circumstances. Our circumstances as we perceive them and as the world does. Blessedness is satisfaction, happiness, contentment in God and in God alone? There's two arrows, right? Thin blessedness and thinking this is prescription rather than description. Well, since this is not a prescription for how we attain blessedness, we have to ask ourselves: who exactly does this describe? Who amongst us is poor in spirit? Anyone want to volunteer for that one? Who is so acutely aware of our spiritual need that we would describe ourselves as impoverished? Who this morning finds themselves mourning and weeping because of sin. And not just because someone has sinned against you, but because you have sinned against a holy and righteous and loving God and heavenly Father. Who here today is meek? Having no struggle with pride of place or pride of circumstance or pride of accomplishment. Indeed. Who amongst us doles out mercy? Who amongst us has as our first an inclination when we are wronged to forgive? And not only to forgive, but to not bring it up again. Not to secretly tend and cultivate whatever slight has come our way until such a time as we can bring it to bear and exact our pound of flesh. And of course, the greatest indictment: who amongst us, who amongst you and me, could stand up here and declare that they have a pure heart. Purity of thought, of motivation, of love and affection. The reason I said that you've probably not understood the Beatitudes is because, like me, you've probably been taught, or in my case, actually taught, that somehow the beatitudes are a prescription for how it is we live a good life. But the beatitudes are not that. The beatitudes are instead Jesus' exposition of the law of God. Do you remember what we read in chapter 5, verse 20 about our righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees? And if it doesn't, we'll never enter the kingdom of heaven? Jesus makes it very, very clear that he has not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. Truly I say to you, he says, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot from the law will pass away until all is accomplished. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is taking that law and he brings it to bear in the hearts of his disciples, and in the hearts of the crowd who've gathered to be healed by him and to listen to him. And whenever the law of God is brought to bear on the human heart, what does it do? It cuts and it condemns and it kills. And the law of God does not kill because it is vengeful, because it's like some type of uh some some some toddler acting out, lashing out in a temper tantrum. No, the law kills us because the law is holy. It is holy and just and good, as Saint Paul says. And when that holy law of God comes to bear, comes crashing down on unholy men, it accuses us. And when it accuses us, it accuses us rightly. Because we are guilty before a holy God. And it condemns. You see the problem that the Beatitudes present to us? In one summary question, who is poor in spirit? None of us. And the Beatitudes, Jesus, he sets up a mirror with the law so that we might see our pitiful condition for what it truly is, and that law comes and accuses and it kills. But by God's grace, the Beatitudes are not simply a mirror reflecting the law back to us, finally showing us who we truly are. They're also a wondrous portrait of someone who does fulfill the law perfectly. Who is poor in spirit, who mourns, who is meek, who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, who indeed has a pure heart before God? Friends, the Beatitudes are not only this compelling explication of the law which condemns, they are a beautiful picture of who Christ Himself is. Christ who is born into poverty, so much so that he was redeemed, not with a lamb, but with a few turtle doves. Christ Himself who mourns as he looks over Jerusalem, longing that they might be gathered up, who Isaiah says is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the one who wept at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus. Who is meek? Jesus himself, who gives us those incredible words of comfort that we'll hear in just a few minutes. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, who goes on and says, Take up my yoke and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. That same Jesus who in Gethsemane, when he was taken captive by wicked men, did not retaliate, but instead commanded his disciples to put their swords back in their place. Who hungers and thirsts for righteousness? Jesus himself. Who in that same garden of Gethsemane, when he was sweating great drops of blood, pleading with the Father for another way, said, Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Who is the peacemaker? It's Isaiah's Prince of Peace, who makes peace by the blood of his cross. Jesus is persecuted and yet blesses, and he says to his disciples, If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. Who is merciful? Jesus is mercy with skin on. We'll see in Matthew's gospel in the coming year how Jesus reaches out and clasps with the gnarled hands of leopards, lepers, not leopards. How he raises little girls from the dead, how he forgives notorious sinners and scatters their accusers who would stone them. Jesus is the one who eats and drinks with the unclean at the table. The one who was raised up on a cross and cried out, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And he is the one who can ascend David's hill of the Lord, the psalmist. Whose hands, though unclean because of his baptism, where he bears the sins of the world, those hands have been cleaned by his own blood as it pours forth from his nail nail holes. The one who with a pure heart had his heart pierced, so that it flowed forth with blood and water for our purification. You see, friends, the Beatitudes are a beautiful portrait of who this Christ is. Because the law which condemns and kills us, Christ comes and fulfills perfectly. Well, you may be asking yourself this morning, what good is that to me that Christ has come and fulfilled the law? What good is it to me that the Beatitudes show me I can't do it? And paint a beautiful picture of Christ. How does this silence the accusation of the law and of Satan's forked tongue? Without Christ, the beatitudes are only a mirror to condemn us. With Christ, they are a portrait of the blessed man, and because of the work of Christ, because he fulfilled the law, the beatitudes are the promise of the gospel held forth to us. This is one of my favorite summary statements of the gospel. It's in John chapter 1, verse 12. St. John says, Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God. The gospel invites us to receive this Christ and his life of perfect obedience, obedience for us on our behalf. And when we are united to him by faith, his life of perfect obedience becomes ours. And God's word of promise. It reorients reality. It opens up our blinded eyes so that we can be blessed. We can be joyful. We can be contented in whatever poorness or poverty comes our way, because we have the sure and certain hope, the promise of God, that ours is what? The kingdom of heaven. The very kingdom itself, not now and not just in some distant future, but now ours is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says. When we mourn, we are blessed because we are comforted now and will be fully comforted when Christ comes again and bears us up in his arms. If you're hungry and thirsting today, if you're hungry and thirsting for righteousness, you will be satisfied. You'll be satisfied as you drink from the cup of God's blessing, as you come to this table of promise, as you come again to his word, and you are filled up with his Holy Spirit. Verse 8 here is the theological heart of the Beatitudes. In verse 8, we read Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. In Christ, by faith, your heart and mine, they are made pure. And we have the promise that we shall see God. Because of this pure heart received from Jesus, indeed, because of the very heart of Jesus, we shall see God. You shall see God, but in a greater way than Moses did, as he was hidden in the cleft of the rock, only able to see God's backward parts, because God said, If you see me in all of my glory, you will surely die. And yet we have the promise that we shall behold God face to face. The promise that Israel heard in Aaron's benediction, time and time again. May the Lord bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lift up the light of his countenance to you and give you his peace. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

unknown 22:14

St.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

John in his first epistle, he echoes this promise. We are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him. Why? Because we shall see him as he is. Brothers and sisters, when we rightly understand the law and the gospel, the beatitudes, they come and they cut us to the quick. They slay us because the law always puts sinful men to death. But when we see them through the lens of Jesus Christ and his gospel, we see that that very law which slays us, he has perfectly fulfilled, so that Christ, in dying to the law on the cross, might bring you and me back to life. Thus, Satan is defanged. And his favorite sermon, which he twists and abuses, becomes instead a compelling vision of life in this world and in the world to come. Satisfied fully in the goodness and mercy of God and preparing us for when Christ comes again and we see him and are changed into his likeness. Friends, that's where blessedness lies. And that blessedness Christ offers you this day. So my plea for you is this that you would look hard into the mirror of the Beatitudes. You would see yourself truly, stripped bare, condemned before the law. Then you would look again into the Beatitudes, and you would see a beautiful and compelling portrait of Christ, God come in the flesh. And then finally, you would look once more to the Beatitudes and the promise of the gospel. That Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that all who believe in him have been given the right to become children of God, and that when he comes again, we shall be like him, for we will behold him as he beholds us. Friends, don't listen to Satan's twisting of the word of God. Don't listen to his favorite sermon. Instead, listen to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his goodness and mercy given to you. Let's pray. Father, we do pray that you would help us to rightly perceive your word. And that we would see and understand that even as your word condemns us, it condemns us and kills us, so that it might bring us back to life and true life in your Son Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit, come and strip away all our pretensions. Help us to know acutely that we bear no righteousness of our own. There is no ladder we might climb to reach into your heaven. Help us to see that we are condemned before you. And then help us to look again and see your great love and mercy held forth in the bleeding hands of Jesus to sinful, to sinful men and women. Lord, by your Spirit, give us faith in Christ and in His work alone. Help us to look with eyes of faith to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and to long with fervent hearts for his coming again, so that we may be like him when we see him. We pray these things, Christ, in your name and for your sake. Amen. I invite you to stand as you're able as we confess our faith together in the words of the Nicene Creed.