Have you ever thought things didn’t turn out the way you thought they would? Remember when you were in first grade and you were somewhat excited to go and your parents told you that big boys/girls go to first grade and you will be a big boy/girl if you go to first grade, so you went thinking something big was going to happen. Then they turned you into a robot, you walked in a straight line, told where to put your jacket and boots, how to raise your hand and keep your mouth shut and you thought, “this isn’t quite what I thought it would be like.” Even when you went to your first school dance and everyone tells you how important this is and you go there and it was just boys on one side and girls on the other side standing awkwardly and nobody is dancing and you thought, “This is not what I was told.” When you went to college and you think this is going to be the best time and people tell you, “oh man, you are now away from your parents and this is going to be a great time” and all it turned out to be was long nights and expensive loans. When you got your first job, and you thought you were going to make big money to drive my big car, to live in my big house, to go on my big vacations. Then you realize the big money is not as big as you expected and the hours were longer than you thought they would be. When you get married and you thought, “this is the one who is going to fill my life with eternal bliss who will hand on every word and meet every need.
So many things in life when we look back we think that “it’s not quite what I thought it would be.” Think about your faith, that idea that when you come to Christ it’s all going to be good, I’m going to be free of conflict, filled with comfort, that I will have peace, joy, love and everything is going to go well. But all of a sudden we find that our vision becomes interruption, that somehow there is some misdirection that goes on and it is not quite what we thought it would be. Just like with the rest we got bad information. Wewent off in the wrong direction.
We started the series on the Beatitudes to correct some misinformation, The information that tells us at the beginning of the year that to go out and have a happy new year but we know that life isn’t like that. Happy is something hard to pin down and it never seems to be what we thought it would be. So we look at what the Bible calls us to have, not a happy new year but a blessed life, and so we turn our direction to the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes help us and point us in the direction of what it means to have a blessed life. Not only do they point us in the direction they clear up the miscommunication of what Christianity means.
Christianity is about becoming like Christ.
One of the first major sermons that we hear about in the Bible, the New Testament, that we hear from Jesus is about becoming like him, that is what Christianity is about, the joy of having Jesus. About having God’s favor upon us.
When we went through the Beatitudes Jesus begins to tells us what it means to become like him.
Review of Series
Matthew 5
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It means intellectually they get it, they come to the point that they have sinned against God. They recognize that they are missing something, they are far off from God. They have come to an understanding that they have made a mess of their lives.
A Recognition Of Spiritual Poverty That Produces Humility And Dependency.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
The intellectual recognition drives the emotional expression, they mourn. The Second Beatitude, blessed are those who weep and grieve and are broken hearted over the fact that they have sinned against a holy God and have sinned and hurt people around them.
Mourning Is The Regret Of A Heart Looking For A New Morning
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Those who have got it intellectually, experience it emotionally and now volitionally they walk in a new humility. When you go from the first Beatitude to the last Beatitude what you will see is the making of the Christian man, woman or child.
Meekness Immeasurable Power Under Intentional Control
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Their direction now becomes changed, they no longer want the things of this world but want the things of God. They understand that just going after the same old stuff even though you grieve your sin would just bring more sin and more grief and out of gratitude they want for themselves what God wants for them.
Greater Satisfaction Experienced When Passions Are Directed By Convictions
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Mercy Is The First Act Where We Become Like Him
after reviewing the first four Beatitudes there is a transition that now is taking place. Because we now act like God. Once you get it that you are poor in spirit, that you grieve it, that you mourn it, that you regret it, once you walk in humility and you began to hunger and thirst for righteousness then you start acting like God and you start showing mercy to others like God has show mercy to you.
8 Blessed are the pure in Heart, for they will see God.
What is the real truth in this?
The Heart That Seeks God Will See God
It’s the promise of God, that if your heart is where it should be, then you will see God where ever it is that you are.
Notice that a pure heart is linked to good conscience and a sincere faith. A pure heart is a heart that is consumed for God. It is a heart with loyalties that is not divided. A heart that is devoted to God. A heart that wants to be about everything that God is about. A heart that is not distracted.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Christianity Is A Call To Live As A Peacemaker And No Longer As A Troublemaker
What does it mean to be a peacemaker? technically it means when one person engages with others to bring about reconciliation to those who are estranged from one another. Isn’t that what God did to us in Christ? yes, while we were estranged from him because of our sin, because we had a difference with God that we could not overcome he overcame it for us. He entered the darkness, he brought the light and he established life and he took what was dark and ugly and made it beautiful. He released beauty. He took through his son two parties that couldn’t be reconciled not because God didn’t want it, it was because we weren’t capable of it, and through his son he made it possible.
Peacemakers enter darkness/conflict, they establish order and they release beauty.
This week series
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This doesn’t sound like having the best of all things. This is the last and probably one of the most important. they are persecuted for doing the right things,
Nobody came to Christ because they thought they were going to be persecuted. When we came to Christ we believed that God will save us and He loves us and He will do something powerful in us and we jumped on that and rightfully so, we wanted our sins to be forgiven and to be right before God. But here comes the problem, in the mist of that we thoughtif I do that my world / life will get better, it will life abundant on speed. We live in a world that says to us that love is good and peace is good and community/unity/tolerance is what it’s all about and we think, “well I want that.” The problem with that is while that goes on and that is the promise of the world, what the world really promotes if greed, violence and passion unchallenged, what the world really sells to us is a life of dependency and depravity. Yes we want all of this and we just join hands and take care of each other and sing Kumbaya yet to help promote that we are going to sell you guns and show you violent videos and hooked on video games, drugs, perversion and that somehow the two comes together. The world endorses one thing but it provides something else
Ephesians 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Satan is behind the picture promising and promoting one thing and then providing another and leaving us confused and looking to this world for something that it’s not going to give us, so the issue is this, we live in a world that is a cover up, on the outside promoting what looks good but underneath providing and endorsing what is evil. What happens?
We give our lives to Jesus, and Jesus’s goal for us is to become like him. Blessed are those who are persecuted. Persecuted for what? For doing what God wants because doing what God wants is not what this world wants.
Transformation Causes Disruption Which Causes Persecution
the minute we come to Christ and we become more like him, poor in spirit because we know we’re not him but we seek him and we mourn we become meek and we look for righteousness and we’re merciful and we try to be pure in heart and we try to be peacemakers reconciling the world guess what happens? the world becomes disturbed by you and the world says, “wait a minute what are you doing.”
John 15:18-20
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
Jesus the son of God the one who came speaking love, truth and peace, seeking to take away people’s sin, the world hated him. Why? because the transformation he was bringing was a disruption and so they crucified him.
What is the purpose of Christianity? To become like Christ but to become like christ means transformation that is disruption in this world and the world fights against being disturbed. Yet what does Jesus say to do? Rejoice and be glad when this world persecutes you and insults you and says all kinds of things against you falsely because of me, rejoice and be glad.
If you become a follower of Christ he’ll make you more like him. What is the reward? Your reward in heaven will be great. What is your reward in heaven? Jesus
When you look at the Beatitudes they end in persecution and that is a disruption to our spirit because that is not what we signed up for. Is this a religion of self destruction? no. It is a religion of transformation of becoming not like this world but like Jesus.
Where is the hope?
John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in my you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Even in the mist of persecution if you become like Jesus you will be an overcomer. You will become a victor over the power and principalities of this dark world. Some of you may never be in prison and some of you may never be tortured maybe it will be a promotion you won’t get because your boss is uncomfortable with your ethics or your willingness to lie and cheat a little bit, maybe it will be your a college student and you won’t mimic what others say and you will speak the truth and you will get a bad grade for it, maybe you will miss out on jobs because they know who you are. Jesus say’s rejoice and be glad because your reward is with Jesus who is in heaven and is with you now.
Rejoice and be glad you are becoming more like Jesus and less like you. The deal was always about the transformation and not a vacation. That He would grow you and He would strengthen you and His love would become powerful, abundant and abounding in you and would reach out and transforms the world around you.
During this time you have to ask yourself, “Why aren’t people irritated with me?” “Why aren’t I being persecuted?” If I am more like Jesus.
Our real reward is from God and the goal of Christianity is for you to become more like Jesus.
Notes taken by: Lorelllawrence@comcast.net The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams