Blessed Are……

Beatitudes—Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:1-16

Joyce Webb 2010

Jesus was teaching these things:

“Blessed (Happy) are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

In the King James Version says “poor in spirit”. Other versions use the word “humble”. Humble means not to think too high of yourself.

Another way of saying it is: Happy are those who are humble, for they shall have the kingdom of heaven.”

Only people who have a humble spirit can see their need God.

People who are proud—people who feel that are okay by themselves—do not feel they need God.

God is in charge of heaven. If you want to go there, you will need to be talking with God—-you will need to live in a way that pleases God.

What do we have to do to please God? Believe in Him. Honor Him.

Respect Him. Be willing to accept His Son, Jesus, as the One who died in your place for your sins. Be willing to obey what God has said his followers must do.

Does this mean that we have to be perfect in our walk? No, but we need to be trying to be doing right. We can not excuse ourselves and say, “Well , what does God expect, I’m only human.” And in excusing ourselves, we are not really trying to obey. Planning to do sin, feeling that God will forgive, is not really trying to obey.

We are weak, and sometimes fail and do wrong, but we should not plan to do wrong—-thinking that then we will ask for forgiveness. That is just “using” God’s good will to us.

If we acted like that to a friend or family—they would be upset with us. Planning to do something to hurt them knowing we would ask for forgiveness is not being honest.

We need to plan on obeying God. We need to have every intention of obeying.

Our weakness is not really an excuse. God has promised that if we look to Him, He will give us strength to be strong against sin.

If we do not keep our eyes on Jesus looking for strength—-that is our fault and a result of our choice.

Our spirit needs to want God. Our spirit needs to always be wanting to please Him and obey Him.

This wanting God is the part of our lives that brings us into a place where we receive the kingdom of heaven.

In wanting and seeking God, we grow in our understanding of how God thinks and what His purpose is. We grow in understanding how we should think and do things so we can be in line with what God’s purpose is.

The more we understand—-the more we walk in the right ways—the more of the kingdom heaven we receive —-the more of its power and spirit we will have in our lives.

Some of the blessings of heaven are: peace, joy, love, strength, wisdom.

Someday, we will enjoy the kingdom of heaven with God and Jesus forever—eternal.

Those who are too proud to need God—–will not be in heaven—-because they have decided that they do not need God.

 

“Blessed (Happy) are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.”

To mourn means to be very sad and sorry—-such as when someone you love dies. A person can “mourn” other things, too. A person might mourn losing their house, losing their job, or losing anything that has been very important to you. God knows those who mourn not having had children, or a mate, or not having had a father or mother to take care of you.

God sees our hearts and knows our sorrows. God knows our hidden feelings that we hide from others. He knows how you really feel—even if you have never told anyone. He knows our pain and sorrow.

God wants us to come to Him for comfort.

So often we blame God for our sorrow and we will not go to Him for comfort.

We think that since He is God, He should have done something about the situation so that we did not have the sorrow.

So we do not go to God for His comfort. We blame Him for our trouble.

It is true—God could have stopped the sorrow—-but He would have had to stop the “choice” that brought the sorrow.

Some children are hurt and abused by a father. God could have stopped that. But He would have had to stop the father’s choice of how he behaved. The man could not have made some choices.

If God stopped all the bad choices people make—-he could stop all the bad things in the world.

If God was going to stop bad choices, He would never have let Adam and Eve make a choice in the Garden of Eden. God would have made them as people like dolls—no choice—just do as I (God) say.

God chose to give man a will to choose. God made man in God’s image. God can choose, so God made man able to choose.

Man made a bad choice in the Garden of Eden. His choice brought sin and Satan to work in the things of man.

Sin and Satan were not working in man’s life in the Garden until man chose to disobey God. Man chose to listen to Satan. Sin entered the man’s world.

Man has been making bad choices ever since. Those bad choices hurt other people. Adam and Eve’s son, Cain, made a bad choice and Abel was murdered.

All the bad things that have happened have been because of someone’s bad choice. And our bad choices hurt other people, too. We are guilty of hurting others with our bad choices.

Is God to be blamed? Only for deciding that man should be made in the image of God with the ability to make a choice.

As people, we all can make two choices—-for good or for bad. Which one do we choose? So many times we choose the one for bad.

Man’s choices hurt others. As the years go by, it seems that more and more bad things are happening and more and more hurting happens.

God does see the world of people and all their bad choices. It hurts His heart to see it all. He did not want this for his people. He did not want this for Adam and Eve. He does not want this for us.

God still will comfort us if we come to Him. He will walk with us and give us strength, comfort, peace, hope even as we have to live through the trouble.

Trouble is going to be here in this world. There are too many bad choices of people to miss it. God says that He will be with us in the middle of our trouble. But we must go to Him and ask and stay with Him.

God does not push in where He is not wanted.

 

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Inherit means to receive something from someone else. Meek means humble, gentle.

Another way to say it: Happy are those who are gentle in spirit for they shall receive the good things of this earth.

Some people are pushy and bossy. They are not gentle.

Gentle does not mean weak.

Example: If you are holding a very heavy box and you set it down—-if you are weak—-the box will go down fast with a thump—-if you are strong—–you can control the box and set it down slowly, carefully and gently.

Gentle means strong with control. Meek is gentle.

Meek people are gentle—kind, have control, strong.

Gentle people are not pushy and bossy.

Pushy and bossy people do not have respect for people. They do not show honor to people. They just move in and try to run things and do things the way they think.

Often gentle people get pushed to the side, while the pushy people do what they think.

Pushy people like control. They like to control others, they like to control the situation——but they do not control themselves.

Pushy people seem to control many things in this world. They push their way into business, government, churches, etc. Gentle people seem to step aside and let them.

You would think Jesus would have said, “Blessed are the pushy people for they shall rule the world.”

Pushy people do seem to rule over many things. Some of them have become famous: Hitler, Nero, Stalin, etc.

You probably know someone at work who has become the boss by being pushy. You know others who seem always to boss other around.

Does anyone like these people? They seem to have friends, but often they are people who just want to stay on the “good side” of a bossy person. They are not their friend because they really care for them, they are their “friend” because they are afraid to be on their “bad side” and be their enemy.

Gentle people are loved for themselves. Gentle people draw others because of their “heart” for others. Gentle people draw others because they do not try to tell others what to do. Gentle people do not try to control others.

Parents have a responsibility to control their children—–as long as this child is still a child. When a child becomes an adult, parents should not be trying to control them. Teaching a child self-control is something a parent does while a child is still a child. When a child becomes an adult—then it is his responsibility to make good choices. If he makes bad ones, he needs to be allowed to suffer the result. Then he will learn to make a better choice.

People who truly “inherit the earth” receive the good things of the earth, are those who are gentle in spirit.

If your natural nature and personality tends to be bossy and pushy—-you need to get control. You need to become humble in your spirit. Why should you be telling others what to do? Why is your way better than theirs? You should not be controlling others.

Ask the Lord to help you become a person with a humble, gentle spirit. Ask Him to help you become a person of self-control, and to respect and honor others. Ask Him to help you become gentle and strong.

You need to be strong in faith, strong in control over yourself, strong in your walk with God, strong in being honest and trustworthy. A person who is strong can be gentle. Gentle people will receive the love and honor from others.

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”

God is always looking for those who are wanting Him.

People who want more of God—-will get more opportunities to learn of Him.

God will send that person someone to talk to him, or let him find something written that he can read, or hear a teacher or preacher who will help him understand more about God.

The more you want God, the more God will help you learn.

God will not push Himself on someone—He will call them, He will try to get their attention—but He will wait to see if them want Him or not.

If you want righteousness and God—-God will help you be filled with righteousness.

One easy way to learn , is to buy a Bible that is easy to read. The Living Bible, The New Living Bible, NIV, New Life Version (uses 850 word vocabulary) The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language—–all of these are easy to read.

Read a chapter every day. Pray and ask God to help you understand.

 

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain (receive) mercy.”

Mercy means gentle and better treatment than what that person deserves. If you do something bad and you should receive a bad punishment, but if I give you an easy punishment or none —–then I have given you mercy.

Justice is getting what you deserve. If you do wrong—you get punished for what you did.

Mercy is getting less punishment or no punishment for what you did.

We all hope for mercy when we do wrong. We hope other people will show us mercy when we do wrong to them. We hope God will show mercy to us when we sin and do wrong.

If we want mercy—-we need to show mercy to others.

If we want people to be kind to us—we need to be kind to them.

If we are hard on others when they do wrong—-people will see how we are—- and they will be hard on us when we do wrong.

If we want people to be patient with us —-we need to be patient with others. If we want people to be generous to us—-we need for people to see that we are generous to others.

People watch us and they see how we treat other people. When it comes our turn to need something—-we will be treated the same way.

It is true, that at times, we do all the kind things we should do and sometimes we do not receive the same back again. That is hard. We must tell God about it, and let Him take care of us when others do not.

Usually, we get back what we give out—-if we give out meanness—we get meanness back. If we give out kindness and mercy—-we will get back kindness and mercy.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

God does not like to see troublemakers. God does not like to see people who stir up feelings that makes trouble.

In any group, there seems to be one person who likes to talk and say things about others that are hurtful. They tell things that are only half true.

Maybe they are not true at all—-maybe it is something they “heard” someone else say.

Stories get started that hurt people. They start anger. They break up friends. They make people worry and get upset.

These people are not “peacemakers”. They are trouble makers.

God is pleased when we try to make peace. Peace in a group, peace in our family. We need to spread kind words, encourage, build-up, not tear down.

 

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Persecuted means to be treated very badly by someone. It could mean bad words against us. It could mean someone hurting our bodies, or even killing us.

Jesus talks about being hurt because of righteousness. Because we follow and believe in Jesus—-we are hurt by those who do not believe in Jesus. Some people get very angry with people who believe in Jesus.

In countries around the world, hundreds of people have beaten, put in prison, and killed, even burned alive because they believed and followed Jesus.

In some countries, if you are a Christian, you can not work in any professional jobs. You are allow only to work in low-paying jobs.

Many religions hate Christians. They would like to see them all killed. In America, we have had the freedom to be Christians.

Some people think we will always have this freedom in America. Some people think we could have a big change happen in America and people will be against Christians.

We do not know what will happen in the future. We need to be prepared in our hearts if changes should happen.

Jesus was talking to Jewish men—-his disciples—who would know persecution in a few years. Every one of the disciples were killed—except one—he was in prison until he died.

The Jewish people as a nation were against the Christians. Some people believed in Christ, but most of them never accepted Christ as God’s Son.

Jesus is warning people. He is saying, when the time comes that people will be against you because of believing in Jesus—-be happy about it. Don’t worry and be upset about it. Expect it. If they hated Jesus, they will hate you.

It is Jesus they hate—-not you. They do not want to have a Lord over them. They do not want to have someone tell them what to do. They do not want to have to answer to God about how they live. They will do what they want and they will not answer to God about it.

If you, as a Christian, remind them that someday they will have to answer to God—-they will not like you. They do not want to hear it.

They will want to out of the way so they do not have to think about God and sin. They will say you are “narrow minded”. They will say you hate sinners. They will say you are against people because they sin.

If you tell them Bible verses of what God says about their sin—-they will say you are talking “hate speech”.

Staying true to Jesus means having heaven in the end. If we give up Jesus—He will give up us—and we will not be in heaven.

We can not believe in secret. We must confess (say out loud) that we believe in and will follow Jesus. If we will not confess—say it—and stay with it—He will not confess our name before God in heaven.

II Timothy 2: 12, 13 “If we suffer, we shall also reign (rule as a king) with Him: if we deny (refuse to say yes) Him, He will deny us.”

Matthew 10:33 “ Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him I will also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Also Mark8:38, Luke 9:26

If the time ever comes when we have to stand before someone in the police or government and say that we are a Christian or they may try to get us to give up Jesus—–we can not say to ourselves, “I’ll just tell them I give up Jesus, but in my heart I’ll believe in Him.”

Jesus says that we must be willing to confess and stand up for Him. If we do that, He will stand up for us before the Father in Heaven. But if we will not stand up and confess Him—-He will not stand up for us before the Father.

 

Jesus is talking about being hurt because we believe in Jesus.

Some people make others mad at them because they are not wise in the things they say and do. Then they try to say that people are angry with them because they are Christians.

This is a difficult thing. It is hard to have a balance. Some people will get angry at any thing a Christian says—-no matter how kind, or how carefully it was said.

But some Christians act in a proud way and say things in a proud way, or they preach and blame and point fingers at others in a way that make others mad.

We need to be wise in what we say and how we say it. We need to speak in love and kindness and gentleness.

It does not help to preach at people who do not want to hear it.

It does not help to “nag”—continue to talk about their wrong doing—trying to get them to change.

If we are foolish and have a mean spirit when we speak—-people will get mad.

So we need to pray and ask God to help us when we speak to people about Jesus and their sin—-so that the Holy Spirit will use our words to speak to their hearts—-and they will hear us.

In verse 12, Jesus said, “Rejoice (be happy) and be very glad; for your reward (prize) will be great in heaven. Remember the prophets of old

(Old Testament) were persecuted, too.”

It is hard to be happy and think you are blessed when people are being mean and hateful to you. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Remember He knows all about it. Many other people have suffered because they believed.

It will be worth all the trouble you go through.

 

“You are the salt of the earth. If salt has lost it savor (flavor)—it is no good—just throw it out into the road or dirt.” Matthew 5: 13

Salt is good for many things.

We use salt for our food. It makes food taste better. If you get too much salt—all you taste is salt and not the food.

As Christians we are to be like salt. Our being in this world helps the world be a better place.

Christians have started hospitals, libraries, missions, schools, colleges. They give away food and clothes.

Too much salt—-might be groups of Christians that try to be too holy.

No one is allowed to have fun. You have to be serious all the time. People are made to pray many, many times in the day. They go to church every day.

They are very controlling about being holy.

Too much salt —-might be a person who nags at a person about the wrong things they do and tries to get them to change. Someone who is always preaching at others.

We can never be too “holy” in the right way. We always try to be as much like Christ as we can. That is not so much about what we do on the outside of us—-as it is with what we do in our minds and spirits.

Having the outside of us look holy, or doing holy things may not be making our minds and spirits holy.

Having our minds and spirits holy will show in how we live and act.

Salt that loses its flavor is not useful.

Christians that do not think and act like Christians are not useful.

If we are truly pleasing God in our minds and spirits, it will show in our lives.

Living in a way that shows people how Christ would live—-is a testimony for them to see Christ —–and be pulled to want a relationship with Jesus.

Salt is used to clean things. You can scrub a dirty pot or pan with salt. You can put salt on a stain on cloth to remove the stain. You can brush your teeth with salt.

Christians should help clean up this world. They should help business be more honest, help do away with drugs and drinking too much, help do away with stealing, killing, etc.

Christians should help towns and cities to live in a good way—-no crime and no need for police.

Salt helps to preserve (keep, save). Long ago, before people had refrigerators—–they would keep meat by putting salt all over it.

Christians should help keep and save this world. Christians help things from going bad—–they live right—be honest and kind and generous.

Matthew 5: 14-16 We are “light” to the world.

Sin makes the world dark and ugly—–stealing, killing, rape, selling sex, fighting, lying,—every kind of mean, selfish thing.

Christians show a “light” –Jesus—to the world. Jesus can save a person from all those sinful things.

Many Christians in a town, or city make a “light” and their good living pushes away the sin and darkness.

We should not hide our “light”. We should not keep our belief in Jesus a secret and hide it. A light or candle is not hidden under a basket. It is put on a high place in the room so it gives light to the room.

We should not hide our beliefs in Jesus. We need to let people know why we live the way we do. We need to let them know that Jesus is the One who keeps us from sin and He is the One who gives us strength to live in a good way.

When they see that Jesus has helped us, they will want Jesus in their lives, too.