"Being Like Jesus" Matthew 5.1-10

“Being like Jesus” Matt 5.1-10
Our society today emphasizes and focuses so much on self. It’s all about us. Pride and personal independence in favor of dependence, happiness at any cost as opposed to being content with what you have, a lust and pursuit for power rather than humility. Strength without feeling instead of compassion, which is strength with feeling. Deception and impurity is well accepted, and purity is rejected. There is definitely a clash in values. There is more of a clash in who Jesus desires for us to be. We are a people who God has called His own. And being called His people, a priesthood of all believers, we are to live a certain way. Romans 12.2 tell us “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” When we were without Jesus, we lived like the world, embraced its values, accepted its ideals.

When God, in Christ Jesus, saved us, our way of thinking changed. We no longer conform to the pattern of this world, but we entrusted ourselves to Christ. Our way of thinking begins to change. How we live our life begins to change as well. Look at what God says in Ezekiel 36.26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”. Flesh is symbolic in saying that God will give us a heart that will be responsive and sensitive to Him.

How do we live like Jesus? How do we become more like Christ? Turn with me to Matthew 5.1-10, it is a sermon that Jesus gave to the people who came to listen to him speak. The Sermon on the Mount. In these 12 verses Christ teaches that God will bless. Will He bless anyone and everyone? How does the Father bless? Does He bless the way we hope he blesses? Through money, financial security, through having emotional security. No. God blesses in a completely different manner. In God’s eyes, to bless his children means to give them hope and joy. This is the deepest form of happiness. Everything else is temporary. It will perish. In these 12 verses Christ tells us just how His children should live, and what character traits they ought to be developing.

Let’s look at the first beatitude. Verse 3 tells us “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Does this mean that we must be poor in order for God to bless us? No. It says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” What does it mean then that we become spiritually poor? It means that we recognize our need for God. It means that we realize that without God we are destitute. We are in poverty. We have nothing that we can depend on, but God himself. To give you an illustration, have you seen World Vision commercials? Where they show the starving children, their grandparents and families? Trying to make ends-meat to desperately meet the needs of their family? That is a picture of what this verse means. Not physically be poor, but in spirit come to the point where you are completely and totally impoverished, and only then will you be filled by the Spirit, the Son, and the Father.

Second beatitude says “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” This doesn’t mean that we are to express sorrow, grief, and sadness all the time. What depressed people! Who would want to be around people like that?! No. Instead, God is saying that those who mourn, those who grief, those who have lost loved ones, will be comforted by the Holy Spirit. They will be helped in their time of sadness. They will be given hope to carry on. Their sadness will turn to joy. In John 16.20, Jesus tells his disciples that they will “weep and mourn while the world rejoices.” There is a stark contrast between God’s children and the world. A man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this “The world dreams of progress, of power and of the future. but the disciples mediate on the end, the last judgement, and the coming of the kingdom. To such heights the world cannot rise. And so the disciples are strangers in the world, unwelcome guests and disturbers of the peace. No wonder the world rejects them!” Those who grieve over the things that God grieves over, will be given strength, joy and hope to help them through.

Third beatitude tells us “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Meek could also be translated as humble. People with humility, people who are not powerful, people who are “lowly” will inherit the earth. Bonhoeffer again says these words “...they are meek, they renounce every right of their own and live for the sake of Jesus Christ. When reproached, they hold their peace; when treated with violence they endure it patiently; when men drive them from their presence, they yield their ground. They will not go to law to defend their rights, or make a scene when they suffer injustice...They are determined to leave their rights to God alone...To these, the powerless and the disenfranchised, the very earth belongs.” People who rule and govern our world today with violence and injustice will lose it, those who are humble and give themselves over to Christ, will one day receive the earth as their inheritance.

Fourth beatitude says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” On Friday night, Timothy & Hope fellowship went out to All-you-can-eat Sushi. I have never seen so much food in all of my life. We ate and ate and ate, and by the end of the night, I think it’s safe to say that we were all pretty satisfied and filled. In the same way then, we are to be very hungry and thirsty in doing what is right before God. Another translation says “God Bless those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” To desire righteousness is to desire justice. We are to desire God’s righteousness as we desire food. That’s how intense this beatitude is.

Fifth beatitude “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” I remember when I was back in Toronto studying at bible college, walking along Younge Street to get back to my dormitory, only to see from a distance a middle aged man, hurt, down and out, lying in the middle of the sidewalk, yelling - no, screaming for help. For someone to come and help him. I stood there, watching the scene unfold, the man kept on screaming for help, yelling for it, reaching his hand up and out for someone to grab hold of it, and help him. I watched as countless of men and women, boys and girls just walked pass by, as if the man was nothing, but garbage. At that point, I had enough, I went to the man, and kneeled down, and people kept on walking passed us. It was one of the most merciless acts I had witnessed. In a city where there were hundreds of men and women on the streets needing the mercy of people, especially Christians, people just passed on by. “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer had this to say for this beatitude, listen carefully, “These men [and women] have an irresistible love for the down-trodden, the sick, the wretched, the wronged, the outcast and all who are tortured with anxiety. They go out and seek all who are enmeshed in the oils of sin and guilt. No distress is too great, no sin too appalling for their compassion. If any man falls into disgrace, the merciful will sacrifice their own honor to shield him, and take his shame upon themselves...In order that they may be merciful they cast away the most priceless treasure of human life, their personal dignity and honor.” Mercy is to “Identify with the suffering of others, of going through something with another, of entering into another’s problem with understanding and acceptance.” This is what God did for us in Christ, identifying with humanity & suffering on behalf of our sin.

Sixth beatitude says “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Sin blocks us from seeing God. It darkens our minds, and dims our understanding of His words. What does it mean to see God? John Piper, a writer and a pastor in Minnesota says “To see God is to be changed by Him.” Your life is changed when you have seen the Lord. Never the same again. Seeing God is a result of being pure in heart. How do we be “pure in heart”? We can begin by giving entirely our commitment and love to Jesus, and for Him alone to rule our hearts and lead our lives.

The seventh beatitude tells us “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” We live in times where war is rampant. God calls us to be people who make and encourage peace, not war. Ephesians 2.14-17 says that Christ Jesus is our peace, and that in his body people would be reconciled to God through the Cross. In January 28 of this year, there were four men, two of them Canadian, an American, and one British man, were captured by kidnappers in Iraq. They were involved with the Christian Peacemaker Teams, attempting to restore Peace in the Middle East crisis. Not everyone in this room will be called to make peace in a hostile land like Iraq, but everyone in this room is called to make peace with everyone as difficult as it may be in some situations. The message of peace is the message of the gospel, because Christ is our peace. People who make peace will be called “sons of God” To make peace is not only the absence of violence, but it is also making right relationships with people. Seeking the good of others, instead of seeking your own good.

The eighth and final beatitude says “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We will be persecuted because of our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord, and because we affirm His Lordship, not only in our lives, but in all of life, we will be opposed, confronted, and persecuted. When we affirm that it is in and through Christ alone, this very claim opens the door to persecution from the rest of society. Our message is that Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to God except through Jesus Christ. Acts 4.12 says “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men by which we must be saved.” Do you realize that in a pluralistic society, everyone and anyone can talk about religions and philosophies ranging from Marxism, to Buddhism, to Evolution, but when you speak of Jesus Christ, people will give you the eye, roll their eyes all around, some people will even get upset because you mention the name of Christ. In John 15.20, Jesus tells his disciples “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” And the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.12 “...everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted..”

So what do we do now that we have heard these 8 beatitudes that Jesus himself preached on? How do these beatitudes help us in life? If you haven’t noticed already, these 8 beatitudes are nowhere near the values that the rest of the world holds dear. First beatitude says “blessed are the poor in spirit”, but the rest of the world says “Pride and personal independence!”, “blessed are those who mourn”, “Happiness at any and every cost!”, “blessed are the humble”, “Be powerful!”, “Blessed are those who thirst and hunger for righteousness”, “Pursue your own needs!”, “Blessed are the merciful”, “No mercy!”, so on and so forth.

How do we live and become more like Jesus? The beatitudes are a great way to begin living like our Lord and Savior. We are to be intentional and purposeful in developing these traits, because these 8 beatitudes describe Christ and his life. This is how we should be living our lives, and how our character ought to be. Check yourselves when you get home, re-read these beatitudes, and ask yourself “how close do I come to living out & developing these traits?” If you’re not even close, get down on your knees, bow your heart before the King, and ask Him to teach you and develop in you these traits. It is a life-long process. By the power of the Holy Spirit, your life will be changed. If you ask God to change you, and your request is for real, you can bet that you will be changed, but you need to be intentional in changing. These 8 beatitudes tell us the values that we ought to embrace and hold dear to our hearts, and they expose what the rest of the world holds dear. Start this today by becoming more like the Savior. Purposefully develop these traits, not by your own strength, but by the Spirit’s empowerment.
** Let’s Pray **