The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 4: Mount of Beatitudes – Are You Chasing Blessing or the One Who Blesses

Episode Date: March 27, 2022

Jesus did not come to make bad people better or sad people happy. He came to give life to the dead and salvation for sinners.

Amen and amen. Hey, church, if you got your Bibles, and I really hope you do. Grab them, Matthew chapter 5 is where we're going to be as we continue in week four of if the tomb is empty. And what we've been doing is just watching how God has displayed his glory on these mountaintops and his love and mercy down in the valleys. And I want you to turn there, and we want to look at this.

We've studied this scripture actually a few times in the past several years. And I hope you know this. I really hope you know this. If you've been around Bible study a while, you know this, but some of you are new. that just because you've read a passage or studied a passage, you are not done with that passage. I hope you know that.

Do you know why? Because the Lord is not done with you. Like I do this for a living, and every single time, it's amazing to me, how I come back to a passage over and over and over, and God has something fresh and new for me every single time. Because his word is living, his word is active. This is not just an ancient text,

but this is the very word of God. And so part of the reason I want to study this once again, it's because Jesus is going to start this sermon. His longest sermon, his most famous sermon, it's called the sermon on the mount because he teaches it on a mountain. That's why it's called that. And it starts out with what I think is one of the most misunderstood passages of scripture, maybe in our whole Bible.

And it's called the beatitudes. And a part of the reason, I think that it's misunderstood, there's many reasons, really. But one of the reasons is because eight times Jesus is going to start out by saying, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. our blessed are. And first of all, that word's hard to translate. We'll talk about that in the second. But even in English, that word blessed. I mean, what do you think about when you think about being blessed? I don't know if you use that word a lot in your life. I mean, church folk use

it a lot. Like, oftentimes church folk will use it as like a veneer or a false answer, right? People ask you at church, how you doing? I'm just blessed and highly favored. Are you? Have you seen your own Instagram? Looks like your life's on fire. You know what I mean? people in the South use it as a cuss word. I don't know if you know that. I know we have a lot of people here that have moved from the Northeast and from California

and from other places. Welcome. So glad you're here. Love you so much. Love you. Really do. So we do. We're a movement for all people, even you.

If you try to turn here there, I will cast you out like a demon, though. I'm telling you. But that's not it. Don't clap. Hold on. Stop. I'm getting all.

I don't have time. Okay. But I just see, if somebody blesses your heart, it sounds so positive, doesn't it? It's not positive. We'll explain. at another time. Sometimes it's kind of superstitious. Like every time somebody sneezes, there's

this superstition that came up a long time ago when people would say bless you. It has to do with demons leaving or something crazy. But what do you think about when you think about being blessed? I mean, I say all the time I'm the most blessed man on the planet. And what I think about is that God has given me some things that I really want, a healthy family, a healthy body, this job that I love, those kinds of things. But Jesus, Jesus, is going to talk about this in a very different way. And I think if you misunderstand, if you misunderstand the beatitudes, it will lead you to misunderstand really all of the sermon on the Mount. And then all we will tend to do is replace the law of the Old Testament that we went

over just a few weeks ago. Remember the fingers and all that thing? That we will replace the law of Moses in the Old Testament and we will just lay a new burden, which is like this new law of the sermon on the Mount. And so, chapter 5 verse 1 starts out this way seeing the crowds because Jesus has been doing miracles in Matthew 1, 2, 3, and 4 and so people are starting to follow him. He went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him. Now, I've been there before, it's beautiful. And what Matthew wants his audience to know, Matthew is a Jewish guy writing to a Jewish audience and he wants all of his audience to know that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the Old

Testament. That's what he wants them to know, okay? and that like Moses, when Moses was born, remember this a couple of weeks ago, the Pharaoh said we're going to kill all the boys two and under. And in Jesus' day, the king that was over Israel said that he was going to kill all the little boys two and under. And Moses fleed out of Egypt. And if you read in Matthew, Jesus fleed to Egypt. There's a whole lot of correlation and connection there. And that John the Baptist is going to baptize him and say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And because lambs were slain in the temple year after year after year after year. And now Jesus is going to go up onto this mountain,

like Moses went up on to Mount Sinai, but the difference is that Moses did not say, or Moses said, you stayed on there because you were unholy, and if you come up here, you'll be toasted. But Jesus invites his disciples to come with him up onto the mountain. What Matthew goes to great lengths to do is to let us know that Jesus is the greater Moses.

That Moses gave the law, they gave a covenant, and Jesus is bringing a new covenant. and then he opened his mouth and taught, because that's how you teach. You got to open your mouth. 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 satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure and 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 others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I think that passage is one of the most misunderstood passages in all of the Bible, and here's why. Everywhere I see teachers, teachers, teach They teach it like it's eight separate circumstantial blessings depending on the circumstance or the personality type of the person that they're going to bless.

And a part of the reason why, if you ever go to Israel with me, and I hope you will, I hope you will, whatever you got to do, sell a car, sell a kidney, sell a kid, whatever you got to do to get on this trip, go with me because it just makes the Bible come out in a living color. It really does. And what we'll do is we'll hop on a plane, we'll fly a long way to Tel Aviv, then we'll get in a bus and drive all the way through Israel. and the way we do the trip is we chase the life of Jesus, okay? And you drive kind of past Jerusalem at first,

you end up back there, it's kind of a big deal. But then you drive up to the Galilee. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful. First time I ever went there, I thought, no wonder Jesus lived here. You got to live somewhere. You might as well live somewhere awesome, right?

That's why we live here, and that's why all you people moved into here. Welcome, all right, we're glad you're here. And the first time I ever saw it, I thought, wow, it looks like Napa Valley. I don't know if you've ever been to Napa Valley, just like rolling hills. The first time I ever went to Napa,

I called my daddy, I said, Daddy, I'm going to Napa. And he said, what's wrong with your truck? Okay, so our people don't usually go to Napa. But it's beautiful. But you can go to the place where Jesus is believed to give the sermon on the Mount. And when you go, you've got to park in a big bus, parking lot, you walk by the little check-in station thing.

And then there are eight separate little, they look like headstones. And each one of them has, one of the blessings or one of the beatitudes like eight separate blessed are and I think people misunderstand them I think people think about them that way as if they're just circumstantial blessings and in fact the last time I was there our group from our church we all got together and had a worship service and then we all spread out with our Bibles to read the sermon on the Mount where Jesus gave the sermon on the Mount I mean if that doesn't get you all like hot and

bothered I don't know what's wrong with you okay I know what's wrong with you okay I know what's with you. You're going to hell. That's what's wrong with you, okay? So, and then I see this guy walk up with very fancy, like, religious clothes on and his group of people. And he said, he said, well, here's what the sermon on the mount is about. He said, he said that God lifts up those who help the down and out. And I thought, oh, no. I don't think that's what it is at all. I don't think it's eight circumstantial blessings at all. It's the preamble to the greatest sermon ever. preach. And if you take your Bible seriously, and you should, and you read the sermon on the Mount, you know what you should feel at the end of the sermon on the Mount? Uh-oh, there's a problem.

If the standard of Jesus is, not only shall you not commit adultery, but you better not even have a lustful thought in your mind or you are as good as an adultery. Not only should you not murder, but you better not even like have some angst against your brother in your heart or call him a fool or you are in danger of the fires of hell. If you've ever thought that the temporary things of this world would satisfy you, then you are in danger of the fires of hell. You get through, I mean, if you just, you talk about laws and oaths and how to do money and all these things in the Bible in the sermon on the mount, if you get to the end of it and think, I got this. Bro, you are lost and in trouble.

And so what Jesus, what I think he's going to do is therefore, he's going to start out this preamble to this new kingdom of ethic of what it looks like for the gospel-infected person to live in this life and to live out this journey of following after Jesus. He's going to give us the beatitudes, which I think are actually just the invitation into the grace-filled life of what it means to be justified and sanctified and one day glorified. And again, I think part of the reason that we misunderstand it

is the word that we translate blessed or blessed is Mercurios, in Greek. And we don't have a good translation for it. Some order translations will translate the word happiness. Oh, help us. I hope you know that God is way more concerned with your holiness than your happiness. That happiness is a pretty dangerous pursuit.

I just hope you know this, okay? Now, I know we're into it as Americans and all that kind of stuff. But I just hope you know that happiness has to do with happenings and that joy is found in the person of Jesus. I hope you know that if you pursue happiness, that it can change, like all the spring bakers that come here that think they're going to have fun and it rains all day,

there goes to happy. Or like all of us that go to the beach and we're having a happy time with our family until the idiots from Ohio come feed the seagulls, there goes happy. You understand what I'm saying. There's a lot. God wants something much deeper for you than just this pursuit of happiness.

What he wants is for you to be macarios. It means like so full of shalom, so full of peace, that it flows out of you. It's really hard to find a good definition. Blessed is a pretty good translation. One commentator said it's more like this. It's more like Jesus is saying, congratulations. That's what blessed is.

Hey, congrats. Congratulations when you are poor in spirit because you were in a position for God to bless you. So that's how I want to look at. And again, we're going to walk through these, all eight of them. And again, not as eight separate blessings, depending on your circumstances, because then, man, because if you don't feel like you fall into one of these circumstantial blessings, then you don't feel like you'll be blessed.

But I think it's an invitation to receive the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We'll start with the first one. He says this. He says, blessed are those who are poor in spirit for your order. is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Now, he doesn't mean poor like in finances because, you know, how is that blessed? It's not necessarily blessed to be poor. There's righteous poor and there's unrighteous poor. There are people that are poor for righteous reasons because they're so generous they give away everything they have. And then there are people

that are unrighteously poor. The Bible says that if you don't work, you don't eat. It's just what it says. You can email Jesus. I don't know who to tell email, okay? That's just what it says. There are people that make dumb decisions. And there are people that are righteously rich and unrighteously rich. So how much you have in the bank does not determine whether you're righteous or unrighteous? What he's talking about here, he says it. He says, poor in spirit. That word poor literally means beggar. Here's what he's saying. Blessed are you when you are spiritually bankrupt? Blessed are you when you read through the whole sermon on the mount and you think, uh-oh, I'm in trouble. I have nothing to offer to the Lord. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for

myself. Blessed are you when not you get busted, but you realize you are busted. Because when you are at the place where you realize there's nothing you could do on your own to get you out of your own way, then you are perfectly positioned for God to do the greatest miracle ever in your life and rescue you and redeem you, and you are blessed when you realize you're flat on your back, and the only way to look is up. And he says, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That means salvation for you is within arm's reach. That's what he's saying there. Blessed are you when your eyes are open and you think, uh-oh, I don't got this, I need help, that you are perfectly positioned to meet God.

Maybe you've heard of the story in the Bible called the prodigal son, Luke chapter 15, very famous story. And Jesus said this kid comes to his dad and he's like, hey, you're dead to me, give me my inheritance. The dad gives him his inheritance. And the Bible says that he goes off and squanders it away on reckless living. And then there's this one little part in the story where the kid, an orthodox Jewish kid is feeding pigs. It's a terrible job for a Jew to feed pigs. And he looks at the pig food and he wants to eat it. And the Bible says a couple of things.

One is it says, and no one did anything for him. Do you know, sometimes it's the blessing of God that no one will do anything for you so that you can realize that you're spiritually bankrupt, so that you will know that Jesus is the only one that can do everything for you? And then at the end of that, the Bible says, and he came to his senses. What if Jesus is saying, blessed are you when you, like the prodigal son,

who rebel against the Heavenly Father and run off to be. be your own boss. Blessed are you, when you come to the end of you and you come to your senses and you realize that you need to beg God because you have nothing to offer him, you're blessed. Blessed are the poor and spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I think these things are linked together. I think they're like links in a chain, not eight separate blessings, which links to the second one. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Now, how does this make any sense if it means happy. Happy are you and you're sad? That don't make any sense, man. You could be blessed when you mourn, but happy and mourning are not the same thing. Now, there's nothing wrong

with mourning. There's nothing wrong with being sad. God has given us emotions to navigate this thing called life. Emotions are incredible tools to navigate life. They make terrible decision makers and lords, by the way. So I don't think that's what he's talking about. I think what he's saying is, when you realize you were spiritually bankrupt, then blessed are you, when you're not crying because you got busted, you're crying because you are busted, that you are mourning the sin in your life, not regret and resolution,

not, uh-oh, I need to try harder, but you began to get a sense in the heart level that you have been separated from an almighty God, and you are mourning, you are sad that you are not in right relationship with God. And the promise here is that you will be comforted. Blessed are you when like Isaiah, when Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, when he comes into the presence of God in God's throne room and he says, woe is me for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

He's like, I am not in the right place because I am in the presence of a holy God. Woe is me. Blessed are you. when you realize I'm not just a mistakeer that needs to try harder but my heart is breaking over my life because my life breaks the heart of God and his promise is because you will be comforted you will be comforted

you know what the only thing that can comfort you is Jesus said he was going to sin the third person of the Trinity we call him the Holy Spirit that Jesus calls him the comforter. You see, if what we are mourning is separation from God, the promise of Jesus in the Great Commission is this,

and lo, I will be with you always to the very ends of the age. The thing that is going to comfort us is not a thing. He is a person, and the Spirit of God dwells inside the one who would receive Jesus. Now, what theologians call this thing here when this thing in your heart begins to happen

and you realize that I'm spiritually bankrupt and you begin to mourn not just over our activities, but you begin to mourn over your identity, who you are separated from God. This is called regeneration. That God begins to do a work in your heart, which I think leads to the third beatitude, which is this, blessed are those who are meek.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. I think this is the moment where people are justified. This is the moment of salvation. Now, we don't understand the word meek. I don't know one dude that aspires to be meek. Hey man, what's your New Year's resolution? Meekness, that's what I'm going for. I don't know one guy that's like,

you know what I hope they say about me at my funeral? He was me, no, no, no, no, because it rhymes with weak and we're like, not me, okay? That's not what it means. In Greek, the word meek, it's not, that's not like a rapper, not really, but sort of. In Greek, the word meek, that means bit bridled horse. It means bit bridled horse.

It's the Greek word for the thing that goes into the mouth of the horse so that the rider of the horse can steer the horse. the horse. Blessed are you when you're spiritually bankrupt and you know you're busted on the inside and you need somebody to do for you what you can't do for you.

And then blessed are you when you begin to mourn your sin towards an almighty, holy and loving God and then blessed are the meek, blessed are you when you say, all right, Lord, not my will, but your will be done and you turn over the reins to your heavenly father and say,

Jesus Christ, you are my Lord. Blessed are you when you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. By the way, that's a pretty beautiful picture of what it means to surrender your life to Christ. All right, God, I'm not the boss of me anymore. I want to turn over the reins of my life to you. That Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

There's a whole bunch of people that buy into the Savior part before they ever buy into the Lord part, but they're not two different parts. It's just two sides of the same coin. Blesser you, when you turn over control of your life, to Jesus. Another word for this, a theological term for this, would be repentance. Repentance is a change in direction. Repentance means I used to be heading in this direction with my back towards the Lord and my face towards the world and then I said this ain't working and so I hand over the reins to

God and just like a cowboy on a horse, he turns me around and now my back is to this world and my face is towards him. And then notice here what happens. Notice the promise is a directional promise, because you'll inherit the earth. Now that does not mean that if you become a Christian, then all this earth right now is yours. I don't have time to fully go into it, but at the end of 2. Peter, God says that all that we know here is going to burn up, and then in Revelation 19 and 20, we find out that God's going to bring in a new heaven and a new earth, and we will dwell in him, whoever's a

believer in Jesus, we will dwell with him in that new heaven and that new earth forever and ever and ever. In other words, God will give you an eternity. what you decide you want here on this earth. You want a Christless existence here on this planet so you reject Jesus and say, forget you, he will give you exactly that forever, and we call that hell.

But you turn over the reins over your life to him, and he will give you that a relationship with him forever and ever and ever. Which leads to the next one. Again, I don't think you can separate these. He says eight separate blessings. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. I mean, let's just be honest.

How many of you would say, yep, that's me? I mean, I'll wake up every day and be like, I cannot wait to be righteous, all right? I know a few of you do. God bless your ministry. I hunger and thirst for like chicken wings and cold beer. That's just me, okay? But you guys are experts in righteousness. Not at right activity.

You've got a lot of work to do on that. I've seen your Facebook, okay? But on right identity. Remember we studied this in the book of Romans a couple years ago? we studied the book of Romans. And when you see the word righteousness, we studied it just like two weeks ago, two, three weeks, something like that.

Righteousness is not about right activity necessarily. It's about right identity. That's about a right standing before God. Now make no bones about it. When you get your identity with God right, for sure it changes your activities, but it doesn't go the other way around. Here's what he's saying.

Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness for a right standing with God. You see, Jesus in John chapter 15 gives this invitation. He says, abide in me and I will abide in you. Abide in my word and I will abide in you. This is all relational language. Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, I don't call your servants anymore or slaves because the slave doesn't know his master's business,

but I call you a friend. Blessed are you when you realize your, you're spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are you when you mourn for your separation with God and blessed are you when you hand over the reins of your life to the Almighty God and then you get a face-to-face relationship with him and you hunger and thirst for that relationship. That's what he's talking about. Paul describes it this way in Romans 3. We covered this a couple weeks ago. Paul says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. In other words, no matter how good you think you

are, you will never be made righteous by your good work. If you think you are, you are by definition self-righteous. You don't even like self-righteous people. Do you think God does? No. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who belief. In other words, Martin Luther says it this way, that God has given us an alien righteousness. Blessed are you when you are so run over by the grace train of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you hunger and thirst for that relationship with him. Let's put it in my talk. Blessed are you when you were a part of a movement for all people to discover and deepen, here's the

most important part, a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, I always get a little antsy on this because I can't tell you, I just can't tell you enough, I can't get over the gospel. I cannot get over the gospel of Jesus Christ. That the gospel is not just like the diving board that gets you into the pool, it's the patio and the whole thing, you understand? It's not like the, it's not like the key that ignites the engine, it's the bumper to bumper. It's not the ABCs of Christianity. It's the whole thing. and I cannot get over the fact that Jesus Christ would die on the cross for me.

I mean, I get while he would die for you. You guys are awesome. See you every week. Sing worship songs and do all the things, man. But I know me. I know what's going on in here and up here and what's been in my past. I know and that he would take my place, that he stood by my side, and he stands in my place,

that when Jesus pushed up on his nail-pierced feet, somehow that counted for me. I cannot get over it. And so the reality that Jesus died for me, it just makes me want to worship. It makes me want to dive into His Word. It makes me hunger and thirst to know him more and more and more because I just can't get over the reality

that he bled and he died for me and then resurrected on the third day. That's why when we sing my favorite hymn right now, how great thou art. I got nine favorites, but this is my favorite one for right now, okay? I don't know I tell you this all the time, but this, I think the writer of this hymn was thinking what I'm thinking. And when I think of God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, then he kind of, I scarce can take it in. That's what I'm talking about. When I think that God sent his son to die in my place, I can't get my mind around that. Like I can hard, I get it,

I've surrendered my life to Jesus. I believe I'm going to heaven when I die. But I cannot reconcile in my brain how a holy and perfect God would bleed and die on the cross and call my name and draw me unto himself. I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly bearing

he bled and died to take away my sin and then that leads to then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. Is your soul singing when you sing? That's why when we worship, I get relent to it. I don't know if you notice. Some of you worship like a mannequin, man.

You're like, I honestly, I don't understand you. I can't, I don't know what's wrong with you. So I'm wrong with you. And you're like, no, it's in my heart. Is it? Is it really? Because my heart can't contain it, man. I hunger and thirst for a relationship with Jesus.

And you know what the promise is? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for a relationship with Jesus? You'll be satisfied. You'll be satisfied. You know why some of you are so dissatisfied? Because you hunger and thirst for the temporary things of this world. And though they never, ever satisfy and they consistently let you down, you keep feeding on the temporary things of this world,

thinking this time it's going to work. Are you satisfied? I know you're not satisfied. You might as well just say, I'm not satisfied. And I'll be like, you need Jesus. Quit emailing me, man. That's it. You're like, well, I bought a new house.

How's that working? Anything wrong with a new house? No. But you realize after you get the stuff that you're going to unpack, you're not going to unpack at all, and then you're going to take the unpack stuff, the stuff you don't pack to the host closet, right? No matter how sweet your house is, you realize it'll never satisfy you. It's just a house. You can be in one room at a time, period.

Get you some new clothes, just your clothes. Get you a new car? It's just your car, man. It will never satisfy you. And yet over and over and over, we go to the things that will not satisfy us, thinking they will satisfy us. So he says, blessed are you hungry and thirst for a relationship with Jesus, because he's the only thing that can satisfy the insatiable soul of humanity. Augustine says, thou madest us for thyself, and our heart is restless until it rest in thee. You see, the opposite of this is true, too.

Woe to you that hunger and thirst for stuff. Your whole life, you'll be dissatisfied. So again, blessed are you. Blessed are you when you realize I'm spiritually bankrupt. I mourn. I repent for my sin. I turn over the reins of my life, surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and now I am involved in this ever-deepening relationship with him,

which leads to the next one. Blessed or the merciful. Now, thank God. This is not just blessings for personality types. Because in my nature, I am not merciful. Somebody laughed. It's right there at me. Okay?

There you go. Not easily offended either, thank goodness. But what's going to happen here is much like the Ten Commandments, remember the First View commandments or about our vertical relationship with God, and then when the Hinge Commandment, the Sabbath commandment, when we are filled with Him, when we know what it's like to be loved, beloved, then we are able to treat one another the way God has treated us. That's what's going to happen here in the Beatitudes also.

In other words, when you are in right relationship with Jesus, his grace changes you. If you are in Christ, I need you to know this. You are, by definition, merciful. You are full of mercy. You actually have in you more mercy than you can contain. Like, where do you get that? Ephesians chapter 2.

In Ephesians chapter 2, the Bible says that you and I were dead in our trespasses. That you and I were children of wrath. That you and I were sons and daughters of disobedience. but God being rich in mercy lavished his grace upon you. When the Bible says you're rich in mercy, it means more than enough. That anybody who has surrendered their life

to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you were saved by grace through faith. And the reason is because the richness of the mercy of God poured out on you. That God did not give you just enough mercy to barely squeak it out of here and make it in heaven. Do you know this?

He gave you more. more than enough mercy, that he didn't just forgive you of your sin and then thump you on the head and take you to heaven. He gave you enough mercy that you would be adopted as a son or a daughter by the Most High King. He changed your name from son or daughter of disobedience to a son or daughter of God, that you are a co-eer with Christ and will reign for him forever and ever and ever. And the reason that you are able to do that is because the richness of mercy and love that he has poured out on you. Oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we will be called children of God. Lavish means to just keep pouring it and keep pouring it

and keep pouring it. Un lavish was the little clap you just did. That's all right. And when he pours out the grace of God on you and he keeps pouring it and keeps pouring it and keeps pouring it, it begins to get on people around you. That's what it means. Blessed of the people full of mercy, can't even contain it. And so the way that he treated you begins to influence the way you treat other people. Not because they deserve it, but you know you didn't deserve it with him and he gave you that grace and love. Therefore, because of his mercy towards me, I will be merciful towards you.

Blessed are you, another way to say it. Blessed are you when you began to treat people the way Jesus treated you? Not so as to earn his approval, but because you have received his love through the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ when you turn over the reins of your life to him, which leads to the next number six. Blessed or the pure in heart. Okay, I think this is Exhibit A as to how this cannot be circumstantial, right, that Jesus just walks up, like, all right, I got some blessings to hand out here. All the merciful people, if you would stand over here, all right? Anybody pure in heart? If you'd just raise your hand, all the pure in heart folks, just please, I got a blessing for you. Please

just raise your hand, pure in heart. Because the moment you do, you do, you just raise your hand, pure in heart. because the moment you do, that's me boss, all right, well you're out. Okay, you're going to hell right now. Because if you self-identify as pure and heart, you are the most proud person in the room, and the Bible literally said God is not on your team. God opposes the proud. So this can't be circumstantial. Yeah, blessed or the pure and heart, for you will see God.

Do you know who the pure and heart are? every believer in Jesus Christ. Because the moment you surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, according to Ezekiel 362626, he reached in and ripped out your heart of stone and he replaced it with a new heart, a heart of flesh, his heart.

That's right. In fact, Psalm 51, David, after getting busted for murder and adultery, says to God, created me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. And God does. God cleanses his heart. Second Corinthians 517 says it this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. And behold, the new has come. If you are in Christ, you have a pure heart because you have the heart of Jesus in you. And then if you're like, well, why do I still

struggle? Because you've got the same mind. This is why the Bible says, do not be conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That's what we're going to talk about next week. It's why you struggle with the same stuff because you've got the same brain. And we've got to take off the old and put on the new. But you have a new heart. You are a new creation. You, in Christ, are pure in heart, which also means you don't have to keep doing the things you used to do because you're not the person that you used to be. That old you is dead and it's time to walk in this newness of life. And the promise is this. The promise is you'll see God. You'll see God. By the way, that's what you were created for. It's what you were created. You were

created to be in a face-to-face right relationship with the Almighty Heavenly Father. And we know this because at creation, I talk about this all the time because it is foundational to understand the gospel. That when God created the very first man and he gathers together the dust of the earth and he breathes the ruah of life into him. The Bible says he's nostril to nostril. He's this close. And the very first human opens his eyes and he is face to face with God. And that has been imprinted onto the hearts of every man, woman, and child who has ever

walked this planet. That we would see God. We would be in relationship with him. It's also why the temporary things of this world will never satisfy you, man. because you were created to be satisfied by the almighty, ever-loving God. And then sin enters the world. And that relationship is fractured.

And so unholy people don't get to see you, holy God. You'll get burned up, man. This is why Moses, remember, he's a pretty big deal. This is Moses after he comes down off of Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, teaching the Israelites with the fingers and all.

He didn't do that, I did that, but you know what I'm saying. And then by the time you get to like chapter 33, I think it is. He comes to the Lord and he says, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory, God. I want to see your face. Now, you would think, if anybody in the Bible is qualified to see the face of God, Moses is qualified, right?

God's like, bro, you can't, very loose translation, but you can't handle my glory. Jesus has not come and paid the sin debt yet. If I expose my glory to you, you'll be burn up, bro, quick. So here's what I'll do, because I love you. I'm going to take you, put you in the cleft of the rock, hide you with my hand. I'm going to cruise by, and you can just check this.

afterburners and it was so glorious that Moses his face was glowing. I know this is a sensitive subject but then he had to put a mask on because it freaked everybody out, okay? Different reason, but it happened, all right? And then Jesus shows up on the scene, the greater Moses, and he looks at his disciples in the face and he says, look right here. When you see my face, you see the father. Why? Because whoever would put their faith in Jesus Christ, if you believe, If you trust when Christ died on the cross somehow, that counted for me. Now your old sinful heart has been ripped out. And we are not under the old covenant of law because we're all lawbreakers.

We are under the new covenant of grace. And through that covenant of grace, we are invited back into what Adam experienced in that very first moment of his life. We are rescued and redeemed back into the family of God. And we are friends of God. And one day forever and ever, we will live. live eternity in a face-to-face relationship with our Heavenly Father. Blessed of the pure and heart, congratulations if you've surrendered your life of Christ. You see God, which leads to the seventh one.

And there's a little bit of cross over here between seeing God and this next one. Because in Matthew 25, Jesus says this, you want to see me? You want to see me on this planet? Whatever you have done for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done unto me. You want to come face to face with Jesus on this planet? You find the downtrodden. You find the widows and the orphans. You find people that this world has turned their back on.

And you move in and you begin to serve them. And Jesus says, whatever you've done to them, you do to me. Number seven, blessed are the peacemakers. For they are the sons of God. Now, there's the difference between peacekeeper and peacemaker. Most of us are peacekeepers, especially parents. right you go to your room you go to your room peace no you didn't not make peace you kept peace by getting the little sinners out of your presence you understand no problems good parenting but

shalom makers is not the absence of conflict but when the fullness or wholeness of god moves in yeah think about the invitation of jesus jesus says come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden let me tell you what a heavy burden burden is. A heavy burden is reading through the sermon on the Mount and thinking God's not going to like you if you can't live up to all of that. That is a religious yoke or a religious burden that you can't bear. Let me tell you where peace comes from is when you read through the sermon on the Mount, the kingdom ethic of Jesus and you realize I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. And Jesus says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden and I will

give you peace. I will give you rest for your soul. Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be sons of God. When the Bible says sons of God, they didn't use adverbs in Greek like we use adverbs. This is the way the Bible would say godly. You want to be godly? Be a peacemaker. You want to be like God? Make peace. Now think about. What did Jesus do? Jesus is the ultimate peacemaker because Jesus made peace between a perfect and holy God and a sinful traitorous race. This is us. Because of what Christ did on the cross, he made peace between a perfect, holy, loving God and the enemies of God.

You want to be godly? You are godly when you do whatever it takes at great expense to yourself to make peace between people that are far from God because of their sin and you share the gospel with them. You share an invitation with them. You pray for your one more. You share a link. You do whatever it takes to get those people into a right relationship with God. Congratulations, peacemakers. Blessed are you when you were like Jesus when you tell other people about Jesus. This is the way Paul is going to say it in 2 Corinthians 5. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us unto himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their

trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. You can use the word peacemakers there. Therefore, we are peacemakers. God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Congratulations. Blessed are you. when you pray for your one more, when you share your story, when you share the gospel, when you share an invitation, that you are being godly. Now, you want to be a peacemaker? We've had lots of questions about Ukraine and how we can respond.

If you would like to get in the game and respond, you text the word mission to 44, 11, 22, and there will be three options that you could be involved in. We are going to send missionaries very soon, like next month. We're going to see missionaries to Poland to some of the churches. that we have helped plant to receive refugees and try to make peace in those families' life,

those refugees' life, and to share the gospel with these people so they can be at peace with God forever and ever and ever. We need to send some people to do that. There are also other ways that you can give financially to ministries that we already have in place in Poland right at the border where the refugees are coming with some churches that we have planted in the past. Congratulations.

Bless are you. when God uses you as a reconciling agent to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with somebody who is not at peace with God, which leads to number eight. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Some of you, I can't point at who, needs to underline the righteousness sake part. Because some of you are like, oh, I get persecuted all the time for my faith. No, you get persecuted because you're a jerk, okay? and you say stupid stuff on social media

and people should mock you because this is not a sledgehammer to beat people up with. It is a map and a mirror, all right? It's not, it's a sword, but our fight is not against the flesh. It's against principalities and spiritual forces. And the idea that many Americans have

that we as Christians should be holy and totally accepted in culture is a brand new idea. You realize this. That being persecuted for the sake of your faith and being a Jesus follower have gone hand in hand from the very first believers.

The apostles were all martyred because of their faith. And Jesus says, blessed are you when you're persecuted for righteousness's sake? Let me ask you this. You ever been persecuted because of your faith?

Now it comes in all kinds of forms for sure. but persecution against Christians is growing not shrinking. There are places now where you cannot sit on certain boards if you are a member of a certain church because that church's view of the scripture and what they believe about family and marriage and those kind of things. Now that's quite different than other areas around the world

where people are huddled together in little basements with like a half a copy of Titus doing a Bible study because if they get found out they cut the fingers off. Have you been persecuted for your faith? and if not, if not, I would ask you, why is that? Is the reason that you've never been persecuted for your faith in this culture, could it be because you are indistinguishable from this culture? I mean, you will never feel the push of the current of our culture

that is crooked and depraved if you're just going with the flow your whole life. What Jesus is saying is congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations when you realize you're spiritually bankrupt. And congratulations when your heart changes and you mourn for the sin in your life. And congratulations when you turn over the reins of your life to your Heavenly Father. And congratulations when the Spirit of God begins to move in you and you're merciful and you hunger and thirst for that relationship with them.

And congratulations when you begin to make peace between people that don't know God. You are going to live such a countercultural, upside down, kingdom kind of life that you will stick out in this crooked and depraved world. you'll be like a light in the darkness, you'll be like a city, a city on a hill. You will be so different that this world won't know what to do with you, and in this world you will face trouble of many kind

but take heart because I have overcome the world. Congratulations. Congratulations. Rejoice and be glad because there's a reward coming for you. It's great in heaven because they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You see, now, that's like the preamble to the sermon on the mount. And then the whole rest of the sermon on the mount is about what a gospel-infected life looks like.

He's like, you know what I'm talking about money? Yeah, Jesus people do money different. You're going to talk about stuff? Jesus followers do stuff different. You're talking about oaths and divorces. Jesus people do all of that different. Forgiveness, different. The way that we live is completely different

when we surrender our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You see, the point, I think, of the beatitudes is that Jesus did not come to make bad people bad. better. And he didn't come to make sad people happy. He came to give life to the dead and salvation for sinners. And if you read the sermon on the mountain, you think I got this, you are lost because you're self-righteous. And if you read the sermon on the mountain, you think, forget you, who are you to tell me what to do? You are lost, and you've rejected the son of God. But if you read the sermon on the mount and you come away with, I need help, congratulations.

You are perfectly positioned for God to do a miracle in your life, to save you, to redeem you, to call you his own. And a part of the way you know what the point of a sermon is, is not only how it starts, but how it ends. And so if you go to the end of the sermon on the mount, it's chapter 7, verse 21, here's how Jesus ends the sermon on the mount. Just to make sure nobody thinks it's just like a brand new to-do list. He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Stop right there and look at me. You crazy people come on Thursday nights. Do you think that might be you?

Let me just put it out. There are people that are standing in line to get in heaven. They ain't getting in heaven. And they're going to get real surprise when they get to the front of the line. They go, not you. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. well what's the will of the father?

I'm glad you asked, John 640, for this is the will of my father. It's not hard. This is the will of my father. Everyone who looks on the sun and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

What is the will of the father to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? That's the will of the Father according to Jesus. And on that day, many will say to me people are surprised, man. Lord?

Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many money works in your name? Here's how you know they missed the whole point of the gospel. Because when they're standing there in line for heaven and God goes, nope, not you. And they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I think you're mistaken. Check out my resume. That's what they're saying. And look at their resume.

I guarantee you it's better than yours. Will all the prophets, please stand up? if you're not already standing, you're not a prophet, because you don't know I was going to say that anyway, so you sit down, you ain't no prophets in here. How about anybody from the exorcism team? Wouldn't you assume that if you're casting out demons, you're on team Jesus? Let's just be honest, right? I've never cast out a demon.

I've told you this a hundred times. Clostest thing ever happened to me? I sent a seventh grader home from camp. That was the closest exorcism I've ever done. Okay? Then I met their mom, and I realized it was one of those generational demons. You know what I'm saying? And then Jesus will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Now, prophecy and demon casting out is not lawlessness, is it? So what does it mean? It means that when you think that your right standing with God is based on your performance, then that's lawless. He says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does then, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rock is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house. That's not happy. But it's blessed. And the reason it's blessed is, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. Congratulations. If your life is firmly planted, not on what you do, but what Christ has done for you, then congratulations. The blessing that you have is that you know Jesus

and he has prepared a place for you and you will be with him. You will see him face to face forever and ever. And then Jesus ends on a bummer. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. You built it on your own workings, your own resume.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. Church of 1122. The thing that keeps me up at night, more than any other thing in regards to me being the lead pastor of this church, is the tens of thousands of people

that come here and that watch online and that are a part of the ministries that we do. And you do all the things. You know when to show up, you know when to raise your hand, you sing the songs, kids, you do disciple group, you go on a mission trips, all the things, man. And you have built your life, your salvation on those works.

And if that is you, then one day, I love you enough to tell you that Jesus is going to look at you and say, depart from me, because we didn't have a relationship. And it scares me for you. that you could go to church many, many months or years and miss out on Jesus. And so I want to ask you this, do you know him? Do you know him? Have you ever gotten to the place in your life where you say, all right, I get it. I'm spiritually bankrupt.

It's not by my good behavior. That's not going to save me. And my bad behavior is not going to disqualify me. I need someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself. God, I am ready to turn the reins of my life. life over to you to claim you as my Lord and my Savior. My Savior, because when you died on the cross, that counted for me. I believe that somehow. And my Lord, because I am putting my life in your control. I'm not going to build my life on the accomplishments of my good behavior. I'm going to

build my life on the finished work of Jesus Christ. Have you ever done that? If you're not sure, you should do it right now. I want to give you the opportunity to surrender your life to Christ. to accept the invitation of the gospel of Jesus Christ that he puts out there in this very moment right now. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if you would say, that's me, I admit it. I'm a sinner. I need a savior.

I believe that somehow when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me. And right now, I am ready to turn over the reins of my life to Jesus. If that is you, would you lift your hand where you are? Would you raise your hand high and say, Father, here I am. Save me. Praise God. Praise God. again from the front to the back if that's you lift your hand and say father here I am I surrender

my life to the lordship of Jesus Christ praise God our good and gracious heavenly father we love you more than anything because you first loved us God I thank you that there is salvation in your house Lord I thank you that Jesus came to rescue us to redeem us to call us into his family and then the moment that we are rescued to make us a part of the rescue team God I praise you for the men and women that are surrendering their life to Jesus right now we pray it in Jesus name Amen. Now, we are going to close our service by celebrating Holy Communion. And so we're going to do something that we've never done before. Ushers are going to begin passing out the elements, all right? So all of you that grew up Baptist, you've got to help us. There's people next to you that grew

up Catholic and think you have to be a priest to touch it. So tell them it's okay. There's a priest that of a believer, okay? So the elements are going to start coming down your rows. You've got to pay attention. You can listen to me and you've got to look left and you've got to look right. They're in these little trays, too. So if you grab the bottom of it, it's going to be pop goes the weasel. And all the... You're going to be lavishing the blood of Jesus all over your neighbor. So don't do that.

So grab it by the edges. Okay. And be patient with our ushers. This is their very first time, too, all right? We're growing up, y'all. We're becoming like a real church. It's crazy. Okay?

Now, on the night Jesus was betrayed. He sits down with us. to celebrate the Passover meal. They've been doing this every year of their life because God commanded it. Remember a few weeks ago, before Moses gets to Mount Sinai, he goes to the Pharaoh and he says, Let my people go.

Ten plagues come, and the tenth plague is the plague of the firstborn. And Moses goes to the people and says, take a perfect spotless lamb and shed its blood and put it on the doorpost of the house. And the angel of death is going to pass and he's going to take the firstborn of every one of them. Everybody in Egypt, all of the Jewish people, but whoever has the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the house,

the angel of death will pass over. He also said, we're going to eat unleavened bread, and essentially you need to sleep with your tennis shoes on because right after this happens, Pharaoh is going to say, get out of here. So we don't have time to let bread rise and things like that. And then after they cross the Red Sea, God instructs them to do this Passover meal every year, every year, every year,

to remember the mighty hand of God that when the nation of Israel was slave to their own sin, that he came in by His grace and set them free. Not by anything that they had done, they had not even received the law yet. So that's the context, and Jesus sits down with his disciples. And he's going to take the bread, and they are expecting him to say rabbi stuff. that is set in stone for a couple thousand years. They're going to expect him to talk about the lamb that was slain, and they expect him to talk about Pharaoh,

and they expect him to talk about Moses and the promised land and Joshua. But instead, he takes the bread and he takes the cup. And essentially, he's saying, boys, your mama did this, and your grandma, and her mom, and her grandma. And all the way back to the days of Moses, we have celebrated this Passover meal because of God's mighty right hand that rescued us out of Egypt.

And we remember that Passover lamb whose blood was shed so the angel of death will pass over. Then he looks at him and essentially what he's saying is all of that wasn't even about the nation of Israel being called out of Egypt.

All of that is sitting here at the dinner table with you. And he held up the bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, broken for you. Now listen, the disciples, we've done this a ton of times. They have no idea what he's talking about. Even though he has prophesied his death-barry and resurrection over and over and over and over, they have no idea what he's talking about.

And what he's talking about is that he's going to be arrested, tried. And then in a couple of days, they are going to see on Galgotha what he said at that table, that his body was broken on their behalf. You see, a part of the reason I believe that God has given communion to Lord's Supper as something that we are to do and remember him is because it is, it is not just a retelling of the gospel, it is once again participating in the gospel. And Jesus says, as often as you eat of this bread, you do so in remembrance of me. And that doesn't just mean like remember what he did for you 2,000 years ago. It's more like when you celebrate an anniversary with your husband or wife.

And you don't just remember that you've been married for however many years. You just, you almost remind yourself that the vows that you took back then are just as real today as they were back then. And he says, this is my body broken for you. And as often as you eat of it, you do so in remembrance of me. The Bible says at the end of the supper, Jesus takes the cup. Now, you've got to understand that the disciples are like, we have no idea what he's going to say now. And he holds up the cup.

And he says this, this is the new covenant. Covenant and testament mean the same thing. That the old covenant was a covenant of law. We studied it a couple weeks ago, the Ten Commandments. and he says the new covenant is a covenant of grace that Jesus is going to fulfill the law fulfill every promise and prophecy and every precept of God

completely then he's going to go to the cross and he's going to say it is finished and a part of what is finished is his fulfillment of the law and that he is going to take our place through the shedding of his blood

and he says this this is a new covenant And this covenant is rooted in grace. And as often as you drink of it, you do so in remembrance of me. And then the Bible said in the early church that often the early church would meet together and they would celebrate the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ by celebrating communion. And then as they left, they would sing psalms, they would sing hymns, and they would sing spiritual songs. So would you please stand as we respond.

Let me pray for us. and then we will close by singing. Our good and grace, this heavenly, Father God, we love you because you loved us and demonstrated it through the life, death, and burial of your son, Jesus Christ, and more importantly, the resurrection. God, we thank you and we praise you for salvation that comes through the blood of the lamb that was slain in our place.

Lord, we thank you, and we confess, we confess that we need you, we need a Savior. And, God, we confess the blood of Jesus, that cleanses all of our sin. And so, Lord, out of a deep sense of gratitude because of the gospel that we scarcely can take in, may we join our voices together to lift up to you that Christ alone is our satisfaction and salvation.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, church, we're going to respond. We're going to sing. We're going to bring. We're going to pray. Let's respond.