The Beatitudes, Part 1
Our View of Ourselves Before God
This is Jesus’s longest sermon; a primer on Christian discipleship—describing life in God’s kingdom on earth. And it begins by describing our view of ourselves before God.
ASSIGNMENT: Read this lesson, Matthew 5:1-7, Exodus 20:1-17, Isaiah 61:1-3, and Luke 6:20-49.
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. Matthew 5:1-2 l NIV
A holy man and a mountain. As we read the first two verses of Matthew 5, we naturally think of Moses receiving God’s Law on Mount Sinai. The difference, of course, is God gave the Law to Moses while, in Jesus, God embodied the fulfillment of the Law.
Jesus didn’t just take a seat because he was tired. It was accepted practice in the Jewish culture of the time for rabbis to sit to teach. Doing so underscored his position and provided visual credence to his message. You can imagine the large noisy, crowd growing silent as they observed him taking a seat. Notice, it was his disciples who drew near to hear every word. It is possible many people were following Jesus that day, but those who wanted to hear everything he had to offer took positions closest to him.
Others were there simply to be part of the crowd or perhaps, to witness him perform a miracle. On this day Jesus was only concerned with his disciples—those determined to follow him. But that was not always the case. On another occasion, when Jesus wanted everyone to hear him, he sat in a boat near the shore to teach with the water serving as a natural amplifier.
Not so on this day. His words were intended for his closest followers, those willing to take up their cross and follow. As his disciples, let’s imagine that we are drawing near as he prepares to speak.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [4] Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. [5] Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. [6] Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. [7] Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:3-7 | NIV)
“Matthew’s Gospel is probably well suited for most of us. Middle-class people can hear Matthew more quickly than they can hear Luke. Luke is talking to the poor in a way that will make them feel invited and accepted by God.”1. Father Richard Rohr opined Matthew’s Gospel was written for the middle class who might have stopped reading if Jesus’s blessing was intended solely for the economically disadvantaged. This is how Luke recorded Jesus’s words. “Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6:20 | NIV) Luke omitted the words “in spirit.” Being poor does not guarantee spiritual rewards, although it can become an advantage when it fosters humility before God.2.
So, what did Jesus say and what did he mean? He means what he said in both Gospels. Jesus offers hope to the poor and the lost. Matthew’s Gospel was written largely for a middle-class, Jewish audience in a way that would capture their attention. For those who recognize their spiritual poverty, Jesus offers the kingdom of heaven (also called the kingdom of God).
God’s kingdom should not be confused with heaven. Jesus came to establish God’s kingdom on earth. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.” (Luke 17:21 | NLT) Kingdom of God residents recognize God as sovereign and strive to live his way in his world. We are in the world, but not of it. Our citizenship is heaven. Bible scholars describe God’s kingdom as “already, but not yet.”
The “poor in spirit” who have inherited the kingdom have discovered that they were in a room without doorknobs. A room they constructed through their rebellion against God. There was no way out. Their sin had isolated and imprisoned them. If they were ever to escape, they needed outside help. They could not free themselves. Yet, God, the only one who could help them, sent his son to set them free.
Only after they yielded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit’s patient call did they discover that, no matter who they were or what they had, they were covered with the filth and stink of sin that they could not hide or wash off. That awareness is what Jesus called poverty of spirit. And it led them to mourn their guilty, helpless state.
Think of the tax collector in Luke’s Gospel. “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner’” (Luke 18:13 | NIV) His words and demeanor indicated his acceptance of the truth that he was nothing in the presence of God. Spiritual destitution is the painful realization that we can never be good enough for God. But thank God, we can never be too bad for him either.
This first Beatitude is foundational. The others build on it. It describes a fundamental trait which is found in every regenerated soul.3. What Jesus is concerned about here is the spiritual condition of those who follow him; specifically a poverty of spirit.4. We must be poor in spirit before we can be filled with the Holy Spirit.5. “No one can receive the Holy Spirit who is not convinced he or she is a pauper spiritually. 6.
We are empty buckets designed to be filled with the living water only Jesus offers. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4 13-14 | NIV)
“Poor in spirit,” according to Jesus, is a religious designation. Such people are humble before God.7. Spiritual poverty describes a complete absence of pride, self-assurance and self-reliance; a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God.8. Poverty of spirit is the acknowledgment of our emptiness resulting from the Spirit’s prompting in response to the gospel. It issues from the painful discovery that our righteousness is as “filthy rags.”9.
The hardest part about coming to Jesus in faith is admitting we have nothing to offer. “To be poor in spirit, like meekness, as we shall soon discover, does not imply a lack of courage but an acknowledgement of spiritual bankruptcy. It confesses one’s unworthiness before God and utter dependence on him.”10.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Many of us read this verse and remember Jesus comforting those mourning the death of his friend, Lazarus. Jesus’s actions in comforting the sisters, (John 11), coincide with this passage. Jesus is very much present in our grief. Any believer who has called on him in their moment of grief has experienced his comforting presence. Certainly, Jesus’s actions in comforting the sisters of Lazarus demonstrated the Sermon on the Mount promise that those who mourn will be comforted.
Yet, most New Testament scholars apply these words to believers suffering for their faith or individual/national mourning from grief resulting from the recognition of sin. They posit such mourning has nothing to do with the loss of grief, rather it stems from the recognition that we are lost—separated from God for eternity unless something changes.
“The true Christian is never a man who has to put on an appearance of either sadness or joviality. No, no; he is a man who looks at life seriously; he contemplates it spiritually, and he sees in it sin and its effects.”11. We recognize for the first time that we are held in bondage by our sin. And if we want freedom, our only alternative is to fall on our knees before the throne of God’s grace.
Until we genuinely acknowledge we are sinners speeding down the highway to Hell without a seatbelt, we will not feel the need for reconciliation with a holy God. But when we do, it sparks an emotional response and sometimes, even tears. The apostle Paul references such sorrowful mourning in a letter to the Church in Corinth. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10 | NIV). Godly sorrow results from recognizing we have sinned against God. Worldly sorrow is the guilt feel from having gotten caught. Guilt and repentance are not the same thing. Acknowledging our sinful separation brings tears for our sinful behavior and tears of joy at being forgiven and accepted into the family of God.
If we hope to be truly blessed we must never be too proud to mourn over our fallen, sinful condition. We mourn as though we are losing our very soul, which, apart from Christ, we are. God lavishes his grace and forgiveness on us and we see the locked door open. Our eyes are blinded by his pure light and our heart is flooded with hope and contentment. It is the point at which we become aware of the fact we are spiritual beings, souls who are only inhabiting a temporary, human shell while awaiting a perfect, resurrection body. We have entered the Kingdom of God.
But mourning our sinful behavior does not end with our salvation. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones summarized the passage this way. “Those who are going to be converted and wish to be truly happy and blessed are those who first of all mourn. Conviction is an essential preliminary to true conversion.”12. The Christian mourns for his or her sins and the sins of others, along with the damage sin brought into the world.13. Finally, Lloyd-Jones concludes by describing a cycle of sin, repentance, and confession. “He finds himself guilty of sin, and at first it casts him down and makes him mourn. But that in turn drives him back to Christ; and the moment he goes back to Christ, his peace and happiness return and he is comforted.”14.
Sadly, few churches these days offer anything resembling an altar call where those who want to be justified before a holy God sorrowfully kneel before him seeking forgiveness of their sin and pledging to turn from a dead-end life to the one in abundance that Jesus promises. Godly comfort and true satisfaction only results when the penitent yield their lives to Jesus as both lord and savior.
Many people warming church pews today have never taken that step. They are essentially Christians by birth or association. Their parents were Christians and since they have been raised in the church and believe in Jesus, they must be Christians, too. But hear this. God has only children, not grandchildren. Or perhaps they consider themselves Christians because they were born in a Christian nation. Again, hear this. The only Christian “nation” is the kingdom of God.
Too many contemporary churches skip the spinach and broccoli and go straight to the ice cream. They preach a welcoming and loving God but omit the part about it being our sinful nature that keeps us from approaching him. Bonhoeffer called this “cheap grace.” Such churches neglect to explain the necessity of seeking God’s forgiveness.
Instead prospective converts are asked to raise their hand in a room where “every eye is closed and every head bowed” or worse yet, simply complete a membership card on their way out. There is no call to repentance; no cry of the sinner for forgiveness. In fact, they might not even hear that they are sinners. Instead they leave the service as happy people unaware that they are still mired in their sin. That is one reason the world cannot tell a “Christian” when they see one. There is no true “born again” experience. I am not saying people who raise their hands to demonstrate their intention to follow Jesus are not saved. Only God knows that. What I am saying is that godly sorrow and repentance must precede salvation.
I can only assume that some pastors use the “stealth conversion” method because of sensitivity to people who are afraid to walk to the front of the church as an acknowledgement of their sinful separation from God. Yet, Jesus endured separation from his father to reconcile those same fearful people to a holy God. When God looks at anyone who comes to him in repentance, he sees only Jesus. Publicly declaring faith is a demonstration of a desire for something better; forgiveness and being made new and whole in Christ.
Consider what the prodigal said when he returned home. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” (Luke 15:21 | NIV) He realized the gravity of his sin, but still wanted more than anything to come home. He was willing to work as hired hand, but his father welcomed as a son. It works that way with our heavenly father, too. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 | NIV) We confess our sins and are restored to a right relationship with God.
In addition to mourning our own sinful condition, we may mourn circumstances resulting from our faith in Jesus, especially when subjected to religious persecution. France posited, “Those who mourn are not necessarily the bereaved, or even the penitent. They are the suffering. . . particularly those who suffer for their loyalty to God.”15. Turner agreed and opined, “the focus is more on those who mourn over afflictions and persecutions that arise because of their allegiance to the kingdom.”16.
Finally, there is at least one other way to understand the passage. Some scholars have connected Jesus’s words to Isaiah’s prophesy:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn . . .” (Isaiah 61:1-2 | NIV).
Osborne inferred a reference to “those who have been oppressed but have repented of their sin and centered on God as their source of forgiveness and help.”17. Carson, similarly, drew from the messianic blessing of Isaiah, but pointed to a subtler explanation. “The godly remnant of Jesus’s day weeps because of the humiliation of Israel, but they understand that it comes from personal and corporate sins.”18.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” To be meek implies freedom from malice and a desire to get even. Meekness and humility characterize the genuine disciple. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:2 | NIV) True meekness is the opposite of self-will. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4 | NIV) “It is attainable only by God’s grace and makes the recipient pliant, tractable, submissive, and teachable.19. Jesus best exemplifies it.” “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42 | NIV)
Meekness always implies a teachable spirit.20. “We must be ready to learn and listen and especially must we surrender ourselves to the spirit.”21. Mental contentment is one manifestation of meekness. Meekness carries with it some of the attributes of the fruits of the Spirit, among them: patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.22. It is a quiet confidence in a God who does not always do what we want but always does what is right.
To really understand what meekness looks like in the life of a believer, we can do no better than meditate on Psalm 37:3-7.
“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him . . .” (NIV)
“Those of us who claim to be Christian claim of necessity that we have already received the Holy Spirit. Therefore we have no excuse for not being meek.”23. Meekness must not be confused with weakness. “True meekness is ever manifested by yieldedness (sic) to God’s will, yet it will not yield a principle of righteousness or compromise with evil.”24. Sometimes, despite a risk of being called intolerant by those who refuse to acknowledge sinful behavior, we must confront sin with God’s word. However, our intentions must be pure and our confrontation characterized by gentleness and respect, along with unwavering firmness.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” The metaphor of hunger and thirst points to the prior chapter, specifically Matthew 4:4, in which Jesus, when tempted, declared, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God.” This Beatitude reveals exactly where we are as Christ’s disciples. “We are not hungry and thirsty after righteousness as long as we are holding with any sense of self-satisfaction to anything that is in us, or to anything that we have done.”25. Righteousness is a term denoting all spiritual blessings. In this text, it refers to the “righteousness of faith whereby a sinner is justified freely by divine grace through the redemption that is in Christ.”26.
“The one in whom the Spirit graciously works desires not only an imputed righteousness, but an imparted one too; he not only longs for a restoration to God’s favor, but to have God’s image renewed in him.”27. Not only do we desire Christ’s salvation, we long to be like him. This results in an interesting dynamic. As we hunger and thirst for more of Jesus we are filled, yet that produces more hunger and thirst.28.
There is also an implication in this passage that a Christian will take positive action to avoid those activities that negatively impact his or her pursuit of righteousness. “I suggest that if we are truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness we shall not only avoid things that we know to be bad and harmful, we shall even avoid things that tend to dull or take the edge off our spiritual appetites.”29.
Discussion
1. Did anything you read offend you or raise concern?
2. Does it make a difference in the sermon whether “poor in spirit” refers to financial rather than economic destitution?” How/why?
3. What was it like for you to discover you were a sinner in need of a savior? Do you include that in your testimony?
4. Is it acceptable to share v.5 with someone grieving a loss? Why or why not?
5. How does meekness differ from society’s expectations and our own natural, human responses? How do we remain meek, but not weak?
6. Why would a “saved” individual repeatedly hunger and thirst for righteousness?
7. Do we attain righteousness or are we made righteous? Can you provide support for your answer?
9. Do you think we ever reach a point where we are satisfied with the state of our sanctification?
10. What does it mean to you to be completely surrendered to God?
Footnotes:
[1] Richard Rohr. Jesus’ Alternative Plan: The Sermon on the Mount, (Cincinnati, OH:Franciscan Media), p.104, Kindle Edition.
[2] Carson, Matthew, Location 6138, Kindle.
[3] A. W. Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, Arthur Pink Collection, Book 22, Faithful Classics (Prisbrary Publishing, 2012), Location 236-37, Kindle.
[4] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 35.
[5] Ibid., 45.
[6] Chambers, Studies, Location 200, Kindle.
[7] Talbert, Matthew, 76.
[8] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 40.
[9] Pink, Sermon, Location 223-25, Kindle.
[10] Carson, Matthew, Location 6148, Kindle.
[11] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 51.
[12] Ibid., 45.
[13] Ibid., 48.
[14] Ibid., 49.
[15] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 115.
[16] David L. Turner, Matthew, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 150.
[17] Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 166.
[18] Carson, Matthew, Location 6176, Kindle.
[19] Pink, Sermon, Location 363-65, Kindle.
[20] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 58.
[21] Ibid., 58.
[22] See Galatians 5:22-23.
[23] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 58.
[24] Pink, Sermon, Location 382-83, Kindle.
[25] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 75.
[26]Pink, Sermon, Location 437, Kindle.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Lloyd-Jones, Studies, 70.
[29] Ibid., 76.
Revised:12/06/2022