Sermon on the Mountain   

(Jesus preaching)

Called the “Beatitudes” “Blessings”–#4-6

Matthew Chapter 5:1-12

Beatitude #4-6

#4 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.

Blessings will come to the people who—- seek (hunger and thirst) ——after the things of God.

These kind of people want to know more about God.
They want to know what the Bible says.
They want to know what God wants people to do.

Jesus said: These people will learn and come to understand the things of God. They will be full.

Their spirits will be satisfied with peace and knowledge of God.

They will come to understand the ways of God.

People who do not know God have often said that they feel like something is missing in their life.

God has made people to have a space in their spirit—that only God can fill.

That space is empty until they put God/Jesus in their life.

#5 Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain (get, receive) mercy.

Deserve—to have earn the right—-to be worthy of receiving a good thing.

Mercy is favor or forgiveness or kindness given to someone who does not deserve it.

It is easy to be kind to someone who is worthy—someone who has been nice and kind.

It is hard to be nice to someone who has been mean, selfish, hateful, bad, etc.

God shows mercy to all of us when he forgives us of all our sin.

God forgives all sin—even the ones that we think are the worst sins.

God’s mercy is great.

We are not worthy to be forgiven. We do not deserve to be forgiven.
But God gives us mercy and forgives us anyway.

Jesus is saying here—-that we should show mercy to other people.

People hurt us. People do wrong things to us.

It is easy for us to want to hurt them back. It is easy for us to turn away from them and never have anything to do with them again.

It is hard for us to forgive them. It is hard for us to be nice and kind to them when they are so mean or bad.

Jesus is saying—-people who give mercy to others—-they will receive mercy.

People know how other people are. People know if you are a kind, nice person. People know if you are kind to others—even when they are not kind to you.

When it comes time for you to be forgiven for something; or you are in need of kindness, or you want someone to show you mercy—-they will remember what kind of person you have been.

If you have been a kind person who shows mercy to others—-then they will show mercy to you.

If we want God to show mercy to us—-we need to show mercy to other people.

#6 Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.

Pure in heart—we can only be pure (clean) in heart when we have come to Jesus for forgiveness of our sins.

The human heart is a selfish heart that wants it own way. It does not like to share. It does not like to be told what to do.

The Bible says “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9

Deceit means to mislead or to lead wrongly. To not be truthful. To hide the truth.

Our hearts like to hide the truth of what we really are. We like to think of ourselves in a better way and hide our sins and bad behavior.

Mark said: “For within, out of the heart of men, proceed (comes out) evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:”

Some of these are big words—but they all mean evil thoughts of deceit, fooling someone, taking advantage of someone, sexual sins, being jealous, stealing, etc.

Man’s heart is not pure. Pure means very clean, whole and good —nothing bad in it.

Only if we have asked Jesus to wash away our sins, and make us clean —can we have a pure heart.

Then—we also need to learn how to walk in the ways of God—to keep a clean heart—to learn how to be holy as the Lord is holy.

We do not learn it all at once—we learn day by day. We learn only if we are trying to learn and want to learn.

Those who have a pure heart will see God—one day.