Pastor Jason kicked off a new sermon series last Sunday entitled, "The Good Life." We're going to spend the next 11 weeks looking at the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. The Beatitudes contain rich truths necessary for us to understand what it means to walk with God. They show us the beauty of what it looks like to follow Jesus. For us to unlock these beautiful riches we need to consider how the Beatitudes relate to one another.
First, there is a trajectory to the Beatitudes. Each leads to the next. But as you move through them, you deepen your walk with God, venturing closer and closer to his heart and to the ethics of his kingdom.
Secondly, there are 7 beatitudes, and in a similar manner to the 10 Commandments, there are two sets to be considered. The first three beatitudes are about our need before God with the last three about our actions toward our neighbor, and everything pivots on the fourth beatitude. In the Old Testament, for the 10 commandments, there are two tables of law. The first table sets how you relate to God (i.e. "you shall have no other gods before me"), and the second table sets how you relate to others (i.e. "you shall not murder").
The Beatitudes are characteristics of those who follow Jesus and live in his kingdom. If you are going to follow Jesus, then your walk starts with spiritual poverty. Pastor Jason defined spiritual poverty last Sunday as putting aside any pretense of having your act together and living honestly with God and others. (Really, go, do yourself a favor by listening to last Sunday’s teaching if you missed it.) If you’re spiritually poor, then your reward is the kingdom of God.
This spiritual poverty leads to mourning. Yes, grief is a part of life as we weep over life’s miseries and death. But what comfort do you have for your grief without the promise that God is renewing everything, using and undoing your tears? When you follow Jesus, when you mourn, you have comfort because of what he is doing. But that comfort only comes when you begin to follow him.
This is humbling. You cannot have a relationship with God until you stop pretending and admit your spiritual poverty. Life with God, even amid life’s miseries, is comforting. But God is the one who brings comfort and not yourself. So, blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth. At this point we clearly see just how foreign, alien, and other-worldly God’s kingdom is. If you live life by the world’s terms, if you play the game of thrones or want to climb the corporate ladder, then you have to name drop, manipulate, gossip, undercut, etc. You have to do whatever it takes to get ahead. But that is not why Jesus came or how he lived, nor is that the heart of God. You must be humble. And it is at this point where you truly see the heart of God, where you see what righteousness is.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righteousness is perfection, the way things should be. Blessed are those who work to change the world, those who live how they ought.
But you can only get to that point by having a relationship with God, by finding comfort in that relationship, and by being shaped by Jesus’ own act of humility. And once you get to that point, you can be merciful because you’ve experienced mercy. You can be pure in heart, or wholehearted, because Jesus wants you to live a holy and wholly life. You can be a peacemaker, because you yourself are at peace due to your own inner wholeness.
Being your true self. Having comfort. Peace. Wholeness. Doesn’t that sound like the good life? It is the life that Jesus offers if you follow him.
Pastor Robbie